LogikAndReazon
Gold Member
- Feb 21, 2012
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Can the millions of Americans now accustomed to food stamps, subsidized housing, and free school lunches be weaned from this dependency? In principle the answer is yes and the cost would be minimal; in practice the answer is no given that the solution is anathema to Americas burgeoning therapeutic state.
Lets begin by disposing of the usual solutions to combat dependency. Forget about cold turkey, no matter how slow the withdrawal period. A 10% reduction in food stamps per month would only invite mayhem.
What about a robust economy to cure dependency? After all, nobody could possibly resist a fresh supply of well-paid jobs. The opposite is more likely: Prosperity boosts tax revenue, and this means more money to buy votes with handouts. With the Democrats in power, prosperity will promote the addiction, not cure it.
Avoidance of dependency, even for those in dire straits, historically rested on personal aversion to being a freeloader. It was the fear of dishonor, humiliation, embarrassment, shame, and disgrace for taking handouts that deterred future dependency. Any job, no matter how menial, was better than the ignominy of publicly lining up for ones allotment of government-supplied free cheese.
These feelings are probably still part of human nature and hopefully can be reawakened. It would not take much. Food-stamp recipients, for example, could be required to use clearly identified supermarket checkout lines so contemptuous full-pay customers can stare at them. Even better, return to the days when food stamps resembled colorful oversized 10,000-lira notes so everybody saw them, not todays EBT card indistinguishable from a bank-issued credit or debit card.
But restoring humiliation as the price for government handouts will be difficult. In todays world everybody except hatemongers must be shielded from any ego damage. Reversing vassalage requires making people feel bad psychologicallydemeaned, stigmatized, and humiliatedand the One Commandment of todays deeply perverse moral cosmology is Thou Shalt Not Deflate Thy Neighbors Ego.
In the past, independence rather than servility was prized. Occasional handouts were necessary but viewed as emergency measures to be quickly ended lest the habit of helplessness take root. Aid was to be given but made as distasteful as possible (e.g., recipients would split logs at the towns woodpile). The medical parallel would be paregoric, an opium-based stomach medicine purposely formulated to be foul-tasting so as to prevent addiction.
By contrast, todays welfare philosophy might be described as making the recipient as comfortable as possible while government fixes the lingering recession, terrible schools, racism and discrimination, structural economic shifts, and whatever else can be used to explain why youngsters must be fed by Uncle Sam rather than their parents. Moms inability to make lunch is not her fault, so why should junior suffer?
Removing the stigma from being on the dole parallels the trend toward normalizing other once condemned behaviors: homosexuality, out-of-wedlock childbirth, guilt-free promiscuity (the hook-up culture), piling on debt that cannot be repaid, and stigma-free personal bankruptcy.
In the name of making people feel normal about what was once deplorable servility, the United States is not only sinking deeper into national debt but also banishing a key building block of civil society. Perhaps it is time to bring back some scarlet letters.
How to Wean the Dependent - Taki's Magazine
Lets begin by disposing of the usual solutions to combat dependency. Forget about cold turkey, no matter how slow the withdrawal period. A 10% reduction in food stamps per month would only invite mayhem.
What about a robust economy to cure dependency? After all, nobody could possibly resist a fresh supply of well-paid jobs. The opposite is more likely: Prosperity boosts tax revenue, and this means more money to buy votes with handouts. With the Democrats in power, prosperity will promote the addiction, not cure it.
Avoidance of dependency, even for those in dire straits, historically rested on personal aversion to being a freeloader. It was the fear of dishonor, humiliation, embarrassment, shame, and disgrace for taking handouts that deterred future dependency. Any job, no matter how menial, was better than the ignominy of publicly lining up for ones allotment of government-supplied free cheese.
These feelings are probably still part of human nature and hopefully can be reawakened. It would not take much. Food-stamp recipients, for example, could be required to use clearly identified supermarket checkout lines so contemptuous full-pay customers can stare at them. Even better, return to the days when food stamps resembled colorful oversized 10,000-lira notes so everybody saw them, not todays EBT card indistinguishable from a bank-issued credit or debit card.
But restoring humiliation as the price for government handouts will be difficult. In todays world everybody except hatemongers must be shielded from any ego damage. Reversing vassalage requires making people feel bad psychologicallydemeaned, stigmatized, and humiliatedand the One Commandment of todays deeply perverse moral cosmology is Thou Shalt Not Deflate Thy Neighbors Ego.
In the past, independence rather than servility was prized. Occasional handouts were necessary but viewed as emergency measures to be quickly ended lest the habit of helplessness take root. Aid was to be given but made as distasteful as possible (e.g., recipients would split logs at the towns woodpile). The medical parallel would be paregoric, an opium-based stomach medicine purposely formulated to be foul-tasting so as to prevent addiction.
By contrast, todays welfare philosophy might be described as making the recipient as comfortable as possible while government fixes the lingering recession, terrible schools, racism and discrimination, structural economic shifts, and whatever else can be used to explain why youngsters must be fed by Uncle Sam rather than their parents. Moms inability to make lunch is not her fault, so why should junior suffer?
Removing the stigma from being on the dole parallels the trend toward normalizing other once condemned behaviors: homosexuality, out-of-wedlock childbirth, guilt-free promiscuity (the hook-up culture), piling on debt that cannot be repaid, and stigma-free personal bankruptcy.
In the name of making people feel normal about what was once deplorable servility, the United States is not only sinking deeper into national debt but also banishing a key building block of civil society. Perhaps it is time to bring back some scarlet letters.
How to Wean the Dependent - Taki's Magazine
