The folly of goverment "compassion" is illustrated by the biggest folly of all, Social Security, but you have to look at what it really was and is, to see it.
At the time SS was created, there was a culture in this country that we took care of our elders. When Grandma or Grandpa retired, it was customary that if they didn't have the resources to sustain themselves, one of their adult children would take them in (in my case it was my family of 7 moving into the old "castle" with Grandma, who couldn't pay to keep it up any more). Many middle-class families also had an Aunt or an Uncle in similar circumstances, who didn't have any kids who could help out. They lived in the back bedroom upstairs. (Do any of you young people wonder why the City houses are so big? That's why).
And this was NOT a hardship on the family, but a part of life that benefitted normal people, through developing a great relationship with an older person who loved the family.
But there was some small percentage of the elderly who, for one reason or another, didn't have those resources, and when they were too old to work and didn't have savings or other resources, became pathetic figures, begging on the streets for whatever they could get.
So to take care of this very small number of unfortunates, the Roosevelt Administration re-wrote the U.S. Constitution (see, Tenth Amendment), and created a program that encompassed the entire working population. Does this sound familiar?
And over the course of a couple generations, that program has resulted in the abandonment of the culture of care for the elderly (They can take care of themselves now!), sucked billions upon billions of dollars out of the economy, where it was supposed to be stored in a "trust fund" (what a joke that was), and now it goes to subsidize the retirements of scores of millions of people who truly could take care of themselves, and it threatens to bankrupt the country.
But as with any Democrat initiative, there are now hordes of people who would be "lost" without their SS checks, so EVERYBODY has to pay about 14% of their earnings into this monstrosity of a Ponzi-scheme fund, and we - the rest of us - forget two uncomfortable facts: If we die early, we don't get shit back from the government, and if we had been able to INVEST that money for our entire working lives, it would now be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, rather than the couple thou a month we hope to collect from the government.
Remember the most important thing about government programs: GOVERNMENT AS NO MONEY! Every dollar we "get" from the government has to be taken out of some other sucker's...er... taxpayer's pocket, and for most working people, we are the "other person" whose pocket is being picked.
