Because You Never Asked

     (This and the essays the “The E.P.R.” and “Afro-Americans” were written in the early 90’s and should be read together. I was recently (in 03/07) corresponding with a wonderful lady named C. who is familiar with my work. The subject was an absurd suggested law making mothers who damage their fetuses due to their drug habits, criminally liable. Although we agreed the proposed law was not the correct course of action, C. suggested a sterilization program for such women. This trilogy of essays eventually sets forth a similar solution with regard to Public Assistance in America.)

     In a previous essay it was mentioned I could be perceived as a socialist propagandist (see essay, “The Russian Revolution”). Hopefully, the reader has not yet decided this condition is terminal. Some of the ideas I am about to set forth with regard to America’s public assistance problems might seem the work of Rush Limbaugh speaking for his gang of conservative wise guys. This is a healthy sign. I don’t want to be conceived as a liberal, conservative, radical, Tory, Whig, progressive, fric, frac, eek or meek. All I am doing is pragmatically analyzing the problems of the world in an attempt to find Utopia, Shangri-La, or, at the very least, a place to go on vacation where there are no tee shirt shops.

     The fact that a not insignificant amount of Americans are being fed, clothed and housed by the rest of us, has become a serious political issue. If we retreat a few generations into history, none of this seemed to matter, but now that the country is supposedly broke (at least with regard to anything not having to do with bombs and missiles) and somehow or other somebody has to pay for it (at least that’s what they say), welfare recipients have become one of the scapegoats. Rush and his minions like to distance themselves from this welfare quagmire, blaming it all on those free spending, bleeding heart liberals. Being that Howard Cosell is no longer with us, I’ll take it upon myself to “tell it like it is” (a habit of mine).

     Our concepts of governmental public assistance first stepped to the plate with F.D.R. and his reasonable attempts to deal with the Great Depression. Lest we forget, it was Limbaughnian types like Harding, Coolidge and Hoover who herded us over the cliff to financial disaster and then did nothing about it for the three years they had the chance, the theory being that traditional wealth mixed in with massive poverty was some kind of Providential scheme that should not be tampered with.

     Logically enough, many in the “massive poverty” segment of society did not share this vision and the New Deal came to fruition. But this necessary public assistance concept eventually evolved into something it never should have become; instead of being a reasonable safety net for those down on their luck, it became a way to pacify a sizeable part of our population that we can’t seem to assimilate economically. Just imagine if the Phil Gramms of the world had the chance to throw them all off the dole, shazzam-ala-kazzam, poof, it’s done. Could we find a way to truly educate and employ much of this societal underbelly? Might we not be faced with a kind of “Clockwork Orange” scenario?

     What happened is that we became comfortable with giving this hard-to-assimilate group a minimal stipend to cover their basic needs. This allowed the rest of us to load up the mini-van with Little Leaguers, drop them off at the game, and return later after giving the credit card a good workout at Bloomingdale’s. What, me worry?

     Both liberals and conservatives acquiesced in this arrangement, and for Rush and the boys to deny it is in tone with their usual negativity. Bullshit.

     The money we pay to welfare recipients is not the real problem. If this is all we had to do, I believe the nation could go on paying the tab forever. What’s really draining our society, both financially and psychically, is the sub-culture that has developed around this institutionalized, generation to generation welfare system. It has created a state of mind not in harmony with the values most of us aspire to --- work, family, self esteem. The anti-social behavior nurtured in this welfare sub-culture --- and this includes many people raised in this environment who are not on the public rolls as adults --- is putting cracks in the foundation of our social structure that no well intentioned government program seems able to shore up. For too long we’ve tried to put that welfare guy out there in right field, hoping no one would hit him the ball. Nine innings is too long a game for that.

     What to do?

     Before going any further, we must realize this is a very serious problem. The future well being of our society will depend more on how many people we can rescue from this impoverished welfare environment, than on how many more millionaires are added to Steve Forbes’ list. When I say “impoverished”, I don’t really mean material impoverishment. Even in this slum lord  domain, the average “poor” person has a TV, radio, refrigerator, stove, and many other things consummate with a reasonably dignified day to day life. Far more relevant is the spiritual-intellectual impoverishment of these places. The money is not the real problem. The real problem is to make these recipients of the public “largesse”, along with their offspring, into decent citizens.

     Offspring! This could be the pulp of the question. Which brings me to --- see essay “The E.P.R.”