Prager: The bigger the Government, the smaller the Citizen
Those of us who oppose a massive increase in the role the national government plays in health care (“ObamaCare”) do so because we fear the immense and unsustainable national debt it would incur and because we are certain that medical care in America would deteriorate. But there is a bigger reason most of us oppose it: We believe that the bigger the government becomes, the smaller the individual citizen becomes.
Here are five reasons why bigger government makes less impressive people.
1. People who are able to take care of themselves and do so are generally better than people who are able to take care of themselves but rely on others. Of course, there are times when some people have absolutely no choice and must rely on others to take care of them. Life is tragic and some people, despite their best efforts and their commitment to being a responsible person, must have others support them.
Even if one believes, as the left does by definition, that the ideal society is one in which the state takes care of as many of our needs as possible, one must acknowledge that this has deleterious effects on many, if not most, citizens’ moral character. The moment one acknowledges that the more one takes care of oneself, the more developed is his or her character, one must acknowledge that a bigger state diminishes its citizens’ characters.
Presumably one might argue that there is no relationship between character development and taking responsibility for oneself. But to do so is to turn the concept of character, as it has been understood throughout Judeo-Christian and Western history, on its head. The essence of good character is to care of oneself and then take of others who cannot take care of themselves.
2. The more people come to rely on government, the more they develop a sense of entitlement — an attitude characterized by the belief that one is owed (whatever the state provides and more). This is a second big government blow to character development because it has at least three terrible consequences:
First, the more one feels entitled, the less one believes he has to work for anything. Why work hard if I can look to the state to give much of what I need, and, increasingly, much of what I want? Second, the more one feels entitled, the less grateful one feels. This is obvious: The more one expects to be given, the less one is grateful for what one is given. Read more…
Man you baby boomers make me sick. Nag nag nag. You were warned about this back with Eisenhower, JFK had to get shot, and the Nixon error was a travesty, as was LBJ and Ford. Carter warned Americans, but many of the powerful American people sold out to consumer captitalism, and many of the hippies of the 60s bought in to it too, just look at the Internet Bubble. Then we had a Pres who liked the women, and actually put more than one million non viloent offenders, to include drug offenders, into jail and the private jail corporations stocks are sold on the NYSE. Then we had a Texan President who coundn’t find a coherent sentence EVEN with a tela-prompter in front of him and proclaimed to be a war time President. There is no difference between Reps and Dems, WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Now my generations has to live in this mess that the few powerful has screwed up. How about talk softly and carry a big stick. We have a military, we have nukes, you think anyone is going to attack America militarily? And if you bring up 9-11, you know what, we already have DEPARTMENTS in the federal government to do the jobs, we did not need a Homeland Security, thank you Reps, those who preach small federal government. All it means is America is not going to give out student visas for a while. WAKE UP!
Benjamin,
Methinks it is altitude sickness. At least that is what I would tell her,
when she says . . . “Peters gone to Dublin.”
The more government takes, the less citizens have .
Not just money, but also freedoms and our liberty.