Some 80 years ago during the great depression, our Federal government came forward and created welfare programs to help an impoverished nation feed its masses. Work was scarce and seismic shifts in the form of migrations from the dustbowls of Oklahoma to farm lands of California were underway. Read the Grapes of Wrath for dramatic representation of how people suffered, struggled and survived… Whole industries were collapsing and millions struggled. Today it would be unimaginable in our country, but due to war in the Middle East we can get a glimpse of what it was like.  In the 1930’s the idea of government hand out was strange and abhorrent to many fiercely proud americans. We were a culture of work, effort and reward. Handouts were difficult to accept. Our government created posters and marketed the welfare programs. Some had to be convinced that it was good and acceptable to take handouts. Today, we are a culture that is looking for handouts everywhere. We seek discounted loans, we seek food assistance, housing assistance, discounts on any number of expenses, and numerous means to avoid taxes. This is beyond being prudent shoppers, we now want healthcare free, or substantially subsidized, we seek to sue our local grocery for a slip and a fall because the floor is wet, we want our employer to give us more time off because we work too hard. We expect to be paid something for doing little to no work, for taking no risk. We are a culture looking for that bargain, that free ride.
Three generations removed from a people that would be appalled at our thinking. The more we have the more we want. The more we get for doing nothing, the more we’ll brag about it. Our great grandparents would have been amazed by the technology, but embarrassed by this society and the direction it is headed and how government regulations and overreach has become acceptable to all of us. Maybe Atlas really has shrugged. Maybe we are becoming those imagined peoples that are dependent on government and continue to ask what can our government do for us as we stifle further innovation and we no longer value hard and smart work.

Mike