FEMA recently announced that they are closing all the FEMA trailers used by victims of hurricane Katrina. They are taking away these emergency, temporary trailers after 3 years. And of course, FEMA is the bad guy because these people have no place to go.
You could see it coming, but it still annoys me. Put unaspiring people into free trailer homes, and they'll take the easiest course -- stay until kicked out. Granted, many didn't get the trailers until up to a year after the storm, but you can get an associates degree in 2 years. I can't believe that these people, barring the elderly and disabled, couldn't have improved their situation, through hard work, enough to move out, regardless of intelligence, race, or previous condition.
This quotation sums up the problem:
I didn't ask to be in this situation. I'm a citizen. I'm a native of this city. And it's part of their responsibility to take care of us as taxpayers. And they're not doing that.
Ultimately, of course, it is an individual's responsibility to take care of himself and people would be better off for realizing this. We can look to others for help, but in the end it's up to us. As government has continued to bloat and expand its role, we pay more and more in taxes and understandably expect something in return. The Founding Fathers did a remarkable job constructing a government that protects against consolidated power, but unfortunately did not plan a way to limit the overall size and power of government. The more we pay in taxes, the more we expect, and the more we expect, the more we have to pay, both literally and figuratively, to actually get it.
It's a vicious cycle and it's transferring individual responsibility to the collective. We all pay into the same big pot and everybody gets treated fairly. Fair has been tried before in many socialist forms. It doesn't work. It saps the energy out of a people by giving them nothing to strive for, and it produces mediocre goods and inefficient services. Ironically, it becomes unfair to those who could have achieved more.
We have strayed so far from our original, limited government that it's almost unrecognizable. I understand the desire to help those that can't or won't help themselves, but doles only create dependence. If the government wants to save us from ourselves, require us to pay into a health or retirement plan, like we're required to have auto insurance. Take it out of our paychecks like Social Security if you have to, but let the individual pay for himself and choose where the money goes. The government could even sponsor one of these plans, although chances are slim it could compete against free-market competition.
This is unfair to the poor people, you say, who will get shoddy treatment for their meager contributions. In answer to this, yes, it is. And life will always be unfair to everyone in different ways, but forcing fairness only creates animosity. If people are forced to take responsibility for themselves and choose their own services, the free market will provide much more efficient, higher-quality, low-cost services than the government ever could. And if the money we are wasting now on government services were used in an incentive-based way to allow people to improve themselves, they could fish for themselves instead of eating for a day. Give people incentive to improve and they will improve. Give them a way to be lazy, and they will be lazy.
It's sad to see that the conservative movement has lost sight of this and that the voters have accepted it. Our choices are Democrats with big government and liberal ideals, Libertarians with small government and liberal ideals, and Republicans, who have kept their conservative ideals but become big government. Somebody, whether a reprioritized Republican party or someone new, needs to turn on the light bulb for the American people. Instill in them a sense of pride for running their own life instead of submitting to government ineptitude. Give them back their tax dollars to use as they decide. Show them that their life is their responsibility, and that they could actually do really well for themselves if they put in a little effort and limited the government to regulating instead of implementing.
I doubt it will happen -- once you've given the lollipop, it's hard to take it away -- but I can always hope.
