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Author Topic: Entitlement' is just a fancy word for dependency  (Read 1010 times)

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Offline Tucker

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Entitlement' is just a fancy word for dependency
« on: May 28, 2011, 02:23:59 PM »
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110528/COLUMNIST0150/305280010/Thomas-Sowell-Entitlement-just-fancy-word-dependency?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Not AP article.

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Written by
Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell: 'Entitlement' is just a fancy word for dependency

Those who regard government “entitlement” programs as sacrosanct, and regard those who want to cut them back as calloused or cruel, picture a world very different from the world of reality.

To listen to some of the defenders of entitlement programs, which are at the heart of the present financial crisis, you might think that anything the government fails to provide is something that people will be deprived of..../


/.....The goal is not to keep the poor from starving but to create dependency, because dependency translates into votes for politicians who play Santa Claus.

Great read.
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Come to think of it, unions do create jobs. Companies have to hire two workers to do the work of one.

Offline rich_t

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Re: Entitlement' is just a fancy word for dependency
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2011, 02:59:56 PM »
Ok.

Define entitlement.

Let's take SS or Medicare.  I have been paying into these systems since I was 16.  I wasn't given a choice to pay into them.  It is mandatory.

Is it wrong for me to feel entitled to get some of my money back out of those programs?  They are after all, a type of insurance programs (albeit ones that I never had a choice to NOT purchase)

I pay life insurance premiums.

I pay auto insurance premiums.

I pay home owners insurance premiums.

Is it wrong for me to expect that these companies pay out in accordance with the contract that I have signed in the event that I need to file a claim?

On the other hand, things mentioned in the article...  School lunches, subsidized house, EIC (not mentioned) etc.  are indeed open for cutting to the core IMO.

Excellent article.

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"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." --Norman Thomas, 1944

Offline CG6468

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Re: Entitlement' is just a fancy word for dependency
« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2011, 03:16:24 PM »
I don't think Social Security and Medicare should be lumped in with "entitlements." Like Rich said, almost all of us have involuntarily paid into those systems for our entire working lives. Some retirement packages are TIED to Social Security.
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Offline Tucker

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Re: Entitlement' is just a fancy word for dependency
« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2011, 03:27:12 PM »
What burns me up more than anything else is that the democrat party uses entitlements like a drug. Once the poor are reduced to a helpless human, devoid of any hope, the democrat party says if you don't vote for my party forever, the mean ole nasty Republican Party will take it all away.

Most democrats aren't smart enough to see through this.
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Come to think of it, unions do create jobs. Companies have to hire two workers to do the work of one.

Offline docstew

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Re: Entitlement' is just a fancy word for dependency
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2011, 03:49:59 PM »
I agree with most of your sentiments about "entitlements", but a system very similar to the EIC was proposed by none other than Milton Friedman, who proposed it as a replacement for the current Welfare system.
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