Jobs Not Welfare

Joe Biden is about to restructure welfare in the country. For political reasons, he included a significant amount of money for social needs in the proposed infrastructure legislation. In fact, the welfare aspect of the law is expected to be much greater than the part dedicated to roads, bridges, etc.

The political infighting has already begun. Republicans are saying that the majority is overspending and creating new entitlements that America cannot afford.

Democrats claim their opponents are not empathetic to the needs of poor people. Republicans have no heart, and all they wish to do is keep taxes low even if women and children starve to death.

The reticence of Republicans regarding welfare is dramatically misrepresented by the other side. Virtually all Americans, including conservatives, want needy people to have the ability to feed and house their families. In fact, they are asking why Dems are so anxious to open up our borders and admit millions of dirt-poor people, while so many of our neighbors are living hand to mouth.

It’s dangerous to distill such a huge problem such as social aid down to a few issues, but I’m going to do it anyway.

The first thing to consider is how much further can our country increase entitlements by printing money and/or taxing Americans at higher rates? The answer is that after the spending spree orchestrated by Barack Obama, including a multi-trillion health insurance behemoth, and aid endowed by Donald Trump to fight off the economic effects of Covid, the Treasury and the capital markets are starting to stress out.

Continued spending is going to stymie the economic revival before it has run its course if cooler heads do not prevail. There are still many Americans trying to get back on their feet after months of belt tightening and lost jobs. The stock market is doing well, but it doesn’t represent great prosperity for all Americans.

Increasing the money supply without considering the consequences of doing so could result in a shortage of capital for long term economic growth and may foster inflationary increases. Just as wages are reaching historical highs, they may stop growing if our government is not more frugal in the short to medium-term.

The second issue, which is totally ignored by the left-wing Congress, is the long-term effect on our capital system and society as government pays for more and more entitlements. The US cannot support 50% or more of Americans as they eschew work and stay home. The US cannot offer welfare in perpetuity. There is a limit. The solution is that the US should not offer aid that it does not have a beginning and an end to it.

Except for the unfortunate among us, who have a life-long disability or other issues, government aid should have a time limit. The objective of aid is to give people a chance to pull up their bootstraps and earn enough money to care for themselves and their families. Aid should not be a life-long paid vacation for able body Americans. Once again, I’m not including those with any type of handicaps.

What do we need to do to make this happen? We need better education for children. The more education an American has, the more money he or she will earn during their lives.

For adults, education, or more accurately training, is the road to self in sufficiency. Adults need jobs and must be able to take care of themselves if America is to reach its true potential. Biden’s credit card has limitations.

The most important thing our government must do, after securing the country, is to provide a job to everyone who can work. This includes childcare and training. I’m sure those who are paying higher taxes now are prepared to do so willingly, if the federal government tried to get all Americans into the workforce.

Most people do not want to be wards of the state waiting for a check each month. They want to care for themselves and make decisions for their families, not have lawmakers decide where they should live or what they should eat.

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