3/21/2017 - Dennis Prager Townhall.com
All
addictions -- whether to drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex or cigarettes -- are
very hard to escape.
There is
one addiction, however, that may be more difficult than any other to escape, in
part because it is not even regarded as an addiction. It is entitlements
addiction, the addiction to getting something for nothing.
One
indication as to the power of entitlements addiction is the fact that while
great numbers of people have voluntarily given up drugs, alcohol, gambling,
etc. -- almost always at great pain -- few give up an addiction to entitlements.
For the majority of able-bodied people who get cash payments, food stamps,
subsidized housing, free or subsidized health insurance, and other welfare
benefits, the thought of giving up any one of those and beginning to pay for
them with their own earned money is as hard as giving up alcohol is for an
alcoholic.
Politicians
know this, which is why it is close to impossible to ever reduce entitlements.
And, of course, the left knows this, which is why the left almost always wins a
debate over entitlements. Every American who is the beneficiary of an
entitlement backs them, and many who are not beneficiaries of entitlements
would like to be.
Aside from
ideology, this is why the left constantly seeks to increase entitlements. The
more people receiving government benefits, the more people vote left.
In this
sense, the left in every country -- in America, the Democratic Party -- should
literally be regarded as a drug dealer. Virtually every American given a free
benefit becomes an addict who relies more and more on his dealer, which is
exactly what the left seeks.
As noted at
the outset, one reason entitlements addiction is so powerful is unlike other
addictions, it is not regarded as an addiction. As a result, few entitlement
addicts see themselves as addicted. Why, then, would any of them seek
treatment? To the entitlement addict, receiving entitlements is as natural and
uncontroversial as breathing air. Air is free, and so are entitlements.
Another
reason entitlements addiction is unique among addictions is that very few drug,
alcohol or gambling addicts believe that they are owed drugs, alcohol or their
gambling debts. Entitlement addicts, on the other hand, believe that society
owes them every entitlement they receive -- and often more. The very word
"entitlement" conveys the message that the recipient has a right to
the benefits. So there is a moral component for entitlement addicts that does
not exist among other addicts (except for opioid dependents, who are in pain;
these patients really are owed painkillers, and society is immoral for not
allowing them to receive them).
Not only do
entitlement addicts believe there is moral virtue to their addiction but so do
a vast number of non-addicts known as progressives. They believe that there is
a moral imperative to give people more and more entitlements. This, in turn,
feeds the moral self-image of those dependent on entitlements.
Yet another
reason for the uniqueness of entitlements addiction is it ultimately does more
damage to society than any other addiction. Other addicts can ruin their own
lives and those of loved ones, and drunk drivers kill and maim people. But
society as a whole can survive their addictions. That is not the case with
entitlement addicts. The more people who receive and come to depend on entitlements,
the sooner society will collapse economically. Society does not directly pay
for drug addicts' drugs, alcoholics' alcohol or gamblers' gambling debts, but
it pays every penny for entitlement addicts' addiction. In fact, the current
U.S. national debt is about equal to the reported $22 trillion this country has
spent on entitlement programs in the last 50 years.
When you
combine the addiction and selfishness of many (certainly not all) of those who
are dependent on entitlements (including middle- and upper-class Americans who
receive a home mortgage deduction); the tendency for the addiction to grow from
one generation to the next; the dependence of one of the two major political
parties on the votes of those who receive entitlements for the party's very
existence; and the belief of tens of millions of non-addicted progressives that
society is morally obligated to give more and more people more and more
entitlements, it becomes very difficult to see a solution.
In the
meantime, the entitlement state in every country is failing, forcing them to
bring in tens of millions of migrants -- many of whom share none of the
countries' values -- to keep the entitlement state alive.
This
addiction ultimately ruins the character of many of its recipients, the economy
of all the countries in which it exists in large numbers and the value system
that created the prosperity that made so many entitlements possible in the
first place.
But other
than American conservatives, almost no one even recognizes it as a major problem,
let alone an addiction.
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