The legislature is afraid to cut medicare because the old people will vote them out. They are afraid to cut medicaid because the “poor” people will vote them out. They are afraid to cut corn subsidies because the Iowa people will not caucus for them. “
Sadly, you are so right. But that does not mitigate the fact that these programs began solely as an adjunct to help a very small segment of the population on a TEMPORARY basis. It was never intended to be a substitute for their income when they had no intention of earning one for a lengthy (if any) amount of time. That is why we see generational welfare today. And we criticize those nisht unzereh mensnchen who take advantage of it
I think it’s a mentality that is dangerous for us. Young frum couples are learning how to work the system, i.e., get Section 8, food stamps, welfare, WIC vouchers. Some people truly do need this extra help, because they cannot get a job. That is not the case with our young couples. They are making choices in life that belie the concept of Torah WITH kemach, as I said in another post.
If our Chazal thought it was crucial for men to earn a living, EVEN AS THEY LEARN TORAH, then why have we allowed our generation of children to believe they are entitled to sit back as others earn the money for them as well as get payments from the government which they have never personally earned? (Please, don’t anybody mention Social Security – SS was taken from every paycheck my husband and I ever made, so that we should be able to collect later on. What’s worse, we originally paid taxes on the gross amount, including that money that was deducted from the paycheck for future SS, and we still have to pay taxes on the SS checks that come in each month, as new income, in spite of the fact that it was already taxed at the time the actual paychecks were issued. But I digress).