Pride, Property, and Paying Your Way
I believe property rights are key to the success of the American economic system. We can individually own property… a simple fact that doesn’t really exist in a communistic society, where “the people” collectively own everything (at least, in theory). We can buy and sell our “stuff” based on our own wants and needs.
When something is ours, we tend to take better care of it. An example of this basic fact of human nature can be found in the real estate industry. Most will agree that, on the whole, a home OWNER will take better care of their property than a home RENTER. An owner is literally invested in their property where a renter is simply paying to use it temporarily.
However, we often see a finer point put to this. The owner who paid for their property takes better care of it than a person who, legally, owns something but the property was given to them as a gift. The same can be said about services. If it’s my money I’m spending, I make a more calculated value judgment. Do I get a $20 haircut or a $200 haircut?
We take more pride in something that we worked for since it has greater value to US. Having exerted the time and effort to pay for something, we intimately KNOW its value and take better care of it. So maybe the correct observation is that people who pay for things value them more and take better care of that property.
What about “public property” like government buildings, parks, streets, and so on? All taxpayers pay for these things. Given human nature, I believe taxpayers don’t value it as highly as their own private, personal property but DO appreciate (to a greater or lesser degree) the value of that property since they recognize they are paying for it. The same can be said about government services… we want to see good value for the money we pay in taxes.
So, what happens when people who don’t pay taxes receive the benefits of government?
I’m sure many are appreciative of the highways and parks but suspect most just take them for granted… and certainly don’t care as much for them as their own private property. Many of those who receive direct government services, in the form of financial aid or support services, probably appreciate that, too, but I’ll bet many take it for granted… and don’t value it as highly as something they earned, just like the gift scenario I presented earlier.
Now, don’t take me in a different direction than I want to go here: I’ll concede that there’s a small percentage of citizens who both need and deserve some kind of assistance. While I would prefer the delivery of that assistance to come from more locally-based charitable organizations, I can see where our government is doing a good thing in helping these people. But, you’ll note that I only conceded a “small percentage”. Although I won’t present specific facts on this here (that will be another discussion), I will assert that the number of truly needy in this country is but a tiny fraction of the whole. It is right for the group of citizens who honestly need help to receive help; it should not be denied.
However, that leaves a lot of people who receive government benefits in excess of what they “pay for”… and this faction worries me. Not counting the “truly needy”, there is still a relatively large percentage of the U.S. population who are net tax receivers … they get more from the government than they pay in, sometimes MUCH more. In fact, many are just “takers”.
My first concern is that they will not “take care of” or value what they are given as highly as they should. My second concern is they will become dependent on this support and not put forth the effort to become at least self-sufficient or, ideally, contributors to the system.
My largest concern, though, is they will “game the system”. They will figure out what political groups will sustain or increase their support from government programs and vote accordingly, putting into place a self-feeding frenzy when combined with politicians who pander to any group who will keep them in office. Politicians promising (and delivering!) more government services knowing the recipients will be inclined to support them… and the recipients willingly “selling their votes” in the self-interest of receiving more from the politicians who promise more. The result is an inevitable downward spiral into some form of government distant from ours today, probably some variant of either socialism or communism, depending on what faction is able to wrench power from the other. Rest assured, though, nobody will have the wonderful freedoms or rights we do now and citizens will look back wistfully to the days of a Great America.
Responsible Americans should all become activists! We should insist on what’s best for our country and be wary of any mechanism whereby more people receive than pay. Once the balance has tilted from one side to the other, it is doubtful it can be returned the other way.
