Articles tagged as

Welfare State

homelessness pexels photo by mart production-8078408

The Cultural Consequences of the Welfare State

Daniel Morena Viton

Foundations of the welfare state can be found in Bismark’s idea of the social state, which, at first, was used to fight socialists on a political level, but hell is full of good intentions. Bismark in the 1880s created compulsory insurance for accident, health, disability, and age (pensions). He called them “state socialism” and explained that all … Read more

Feds Send Warning to States on Unemployment Benefits

Steve MacDonald

US Secretary of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has drawn a red line for Governors in all fifty states. Illegal Aliens are not eligible for unemployment benefits. Chavez-DeRemer reminded the governors that employment authorization was a prerequisite to securing employment. “Unemployment benefits are not a handout for those in our country illegally,” Chavez-DeRemer said. Compliance with the directive, … Read more

walter e williams on historical views

Walter Williams on the Welfare State

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“We have abandoned many personal freedoms. The primary justification for the attack on private property and economic freedom and privacy, I might add,  can be found in peoples desire for  Government to do good.”

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Democrats’ Spending

Op-Ed

The Democrats are pushing to spend more money than most Americans can truly conceive.  The Senate, with the help of some Republicans, signed off on what is called the “Infrastructure Bill” for about 1.2 trillion dollars.

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Ronald Reagan Best Social Program is a Job Quotefancy-69125-3840x2160

Notable Quote – No, it wasn’t Slavery that broke Black families; it was White Progressives with “good intentions” that did

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Empirical evidence has likewise seldom been mentioned by those who make a common claim, advanced by [Nicholas] Kristof among many others, that “Slavery and post-slavery oppression left a legacy of broken families” among blacks. But the plain fact is that the proportion of black children living with only one parent was never as great during … Read more

Thomas Sowell Welfare State

Notable Quote – George Will, Prof. Don Boudreaux

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[Welfare] states presuppose economic dynamism sufficient to generate investments, job creation, corporate profits, and individuals’ incomes from which come tax revenues needed to fund entitlements. But welfare states produce in citizens an entitlement mentality and a low pain threshold. That mentality inflames appetites for more entitlements, broadly construed to include all government benefits and protections … Read more

Guest post – Picking on Denmark

Op-Ed

By Eddie

Forward: I have known “Eddie” for a couple of decades and when we consultants were at the same customer in implementing our company’s software, we used to have long discussions on culture and politics – and we always disagreed.  That said, Eddie is a reasonable guy and when we talked last week and I mentioned the ‘Grok, his response was “I’ve always wanted to do something like that”.  So, here’s his chance.  Comment per usual – just be yourselves, folks!

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Arctic Sea Ice Volume Anomaly

Intro – I’m making my foray into the blog-sphere as an outlet to discuss issues of interest to me. I believe in the values of our founding fathers and their support of individual freedom. I believe that if Americans wish to have freedom for themselves they must be willing to give freedom to their neighbors. My favorite President is Thomas Jefferson.
I believe in getting to the truth of the matter which is rarely a simple thing. Facts and logic are my friends, lies are my enemies.
Oh, and I guess I need to say that I’m a misfit in the GraniteGrok world as I tend to the liberal side of debates. I hope not to upset anyone….. well, maybe a little.

Picking on Denmark

Steve Mac Donald’s post on Denmark’s arctic studies were a bit misleading and hey, I like Denmark so let’s not pick on them, ok? 

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Drug Addiction Recovery – a source of government rent-seeking?

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MIDPOINT recover center logoWhat does it say about the marketplace when startups turn directly to government for launching? And then get P.O’d when they get a “no”?

Nonprofit startup scraps plans for recovery center in Concord

A startup Manchester nonprofit has abandoned plans to open a recovery center in Concord after a discouraging meeting with state officials, the founder of the group said on Thursday.

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GrokTALK! What If You Don’t “Love The One You’re With?”

Steve MacDonald

We explore the progressive habit of using immigration to supplant the uncooperative populations with those more inclined to vote for Democrats. This naturally leads to the question of property rights, as government needs to milk someone to finance it’s Welfare State Get-out-the vote immigration policies. Bill O’Brien Guest Hosts.  

Notable Quote – F. A. Hayek

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Wherever liberty as we understand it has been destroyed, this has almost always been done in the name of some new freedom promised to the people.

– F. A. Hayek, the Road to Serfdom

 

Certainly, Progressives believe that they have new “freedom not to be bankrupted from illness” with Obamacare – but are destroying the First Amendment Right to expression of religion (the HHS mandate, and opposed to Obama’s “freedom of worship”)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

and making others indentured servants to pay for it:

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Give a man a fish…

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…and you feed him for a day.  Teach him how to fish and he feeds himself forever.

Here’s a bit of a reality check for the expanded ObamaUSA welfareland that wants everyone to be equal in income and that you, Mr. / Mrs. / Ms Obama Voter decided to have over the alternative.  Enjoy that social justice – fish for everyone!  Progressives surely want to give you that daily fish.  All you have to do is go to their welfare office, fill out the forms in triplicate, bring in verifying documentation (that you forg0t – go home and get it), have a social worker come out and visit to verify things, and they will allocate you a fish as soon as possible.  Once the computer system has been updated and the government logistics (er, the same logistics system that FEMA has been using for the last two weeks in NY and NJ – you know, that Obama department that closed down during the Nor’easter as it was too dangerous to help the folks that have lost their homes, lost their power, and don’t know where their next meal is coming from?) has you in its system, you will start to get your daily fish.  Just remember, we either use the politically connected or the lowest bidder as the supplier.

And you may well have to to qualify again – no fair getting the Government issued fish if your “life circumstances” lifestyle changes.

Summary:  Sure, you get the fish at no expense to you BUT

  • You have to go to Government for your daily sustenance (but at no expense to you, Government provides)
  • You have to comply their requirements for your daily sustenance (but at no expense to you, Government provides)
  • You have to follow their rules  for your daily sustenance (but at no expense to you, Government provides)
  • You have to settle for what they give you for your daily sustenance (but at no expense to you, Government provides)
  • There is no upside to receiving a single, solitary fish for your daily sustenance (but at no expense to you, Government provides)
  • You have little or no control for your daily sustenance (but at no expense to you, Government provides)

You are the ward of the State – they will make sure you get the fish from the union fishermen just like the folks on Staten Island are getting their electrical wires replaced by union electrical workers (and no non-union help allow even if you still are hungry and there’s lots of fish in that warehouse).

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Quote of note: Why the Welfare State Must Be Dismantled.


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From George Gilder: The Real Reagan Lesson for Romney-Ryan, which originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal:

“Everyone knows about America’s liabilities. Everyone knows that they will have to be addressed and many know that Mr. Ryan’s plan will address them. But the real opportunity is to transcend them by…

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There is nothing more moral than eliminating government ‘charity’

Carolyn

As conservative Republicans work to eliminate or reduce the amount of money New Hampshire spends on government programs, critics on the political left have emerged from time to time with the idea that these policies are immoral—or as one outspoken critic said, “morally repugnant.”

This criticism is predicated on a belief that only government can provide for the basic needs of people who can’t provide for themselves. We agree that people need to take care of one another. It is our moral obligation. But it’s not government’s job to do it. In fact, one of the best things about American history is how well we have taken care of one another, even before the federal government launched its “War on Poverty” or created programs such as Medicaid or Obamacare.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker and historian who traveled to America in the 1830s, wrote that one of the strengths of 19th Century America was its “robust civil society,” which he defined as the institutions, such as the family, the church and other secular civic organizations, that operated between the individual and the government. He praised these institutions, explaining how they tempered the isolating tendencies of individualism and the “despotic proclivities of centralized [government] administration.”

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