'Something for nothing': An America with no future

I am one member of a family of seven. Our father was originally the only source of income for the family. When he survived a rare disease and we knew he was going to live, my mother was dedicated to becoming a nurse. 

We had no brand-name clothes, wore passed-down items and had some homemade toys. My father helped the kids of the neighborhood make kites to fly. When my mother graduated with her nursing license in 1963, we had a second household income. Things did cost less in that era and the median income for a family in 1965 was $6,900. Since we now had a household with two incomes, let’s say we had a $14,000 annual income for the house and that equals to $2,000 a year to spend per person. By any standard that was not much.

With five children, my parents started teaching us responsibility at an early age. We each had a list posted with daily chores to do. When the youngest was 3, she knew to put her toys up, in the proximity of the toy box, and other things toddlers do. The older ones had dishes to wash, clothes to iron and so forth. We received stars on our list and if everything was done, we could get an allowance. We would get 25 cents a week. 

As we each progressed from high school to college there were no student loans to be paid off. Each one of us kids supplemented our own college expenses to make it easier for the family. As we grew, one by one we achieved our college degrees. We had graduated debt-free. There were three Bachelor of Science degrees, one master’s degree and one nursing degree now in our family. 

Our parents had taught us ethics, responsibility and the definition of work. I started my first job two weeks after graduating from high school. I looked forward to being a productive member of society. I was eager to pay into Social Security and Medicare so I would have something to live on in my senior years. 

I know there are others that can relate to these standards set in their families. We as a society need to reinstate individual responsibility. Stop the general dole of our monies that we seniors worked for to support our lives in our golden ages

I was listening to the radio after the Chicago riots in 1968. A woman called in to say she participated in the burning and looting of her town because she was tired of being denied a job. The host asked what position she was looking for and she responded, “an executive secretary.” She was asked if she could take shorthand and she said, “No.” Shorthand, for those who do not know, is a form of penmanship dictation, writing by hand, and was an important skill for a secretary in those days. 

I didn’t recognize it then, but that was the first time I was exposed to someone thinking they were entitled to a position without earning it. Entitled as defined in Webster’s Dictionary says “to give a right or legal authority to; authorize or qualify.” She was not authorized or qualified for such a position.

I personally know a family of four who draw government benefits. The husband does work, and the wife refuses to work because she has a malformed eye. She says, “No one would want to look at her,” yet she does have a husband who looks at her and they see fit to go out in public and socialize. She could wear a patch over her eye and get a job suitable to her skills. What’s the difference between socializing in public and getting a call-center job? The children are in school and she and her husband are two-packs-a-day smokers but she loves that “free” money she’s entitled to that someone else worked for.

I know a young man who receives 100 percent physical disability compensation. On the weekend when the other men are off work, I’ve watched him play unpadded full-body-contact tackle football. There are people with disabilities who work from wheelchairs, artists who paint with their toes and people who work without digits, arms or legs. Apparently he doesn’t have a learning disability because he passed the test to get his driver’s license and motors around in a muscle car. He’s not illiterate but someone who worked for Social Security and Medicare benefits is supporting him. 

He could be working and supporting someone more desperate than himself, but he’s living life free.

Within the past month I talked to a young man who is getting a medical degree. He is living with his girlfriend and their baby. She is currently getting government subsistence as a single parent. They have a “plan” to have one more child before he is through with school and those expenses will be taken care of by the redistribution of funds taken from senior citizens and military cutbacks.

Our government is encouraging the practice of females producing offspring so they can get support. For such people, that is their “job” so they won’t have to work for a salary, and they don’t take responsibility of teaching their kids to do anything but reproduce. 

There is a household that has three unmarried, related women drawing benefits for a combined five children. One woman could stay home with the children and two could get a job but that would mean work for someone. Producing children is not a job source for income but a responsibility of training young minds to be productive.

The movies have shown companies having on-site day-care centers for working parents. Couldn’t the government develop a program and give spiffs to companies that would create jobs for parents to be near their preschool children, learn a skill and get off of the dole? This could help the unemployment number decline and develop skilled workers who would be paying into Social Security and Medicare for their own future. 

When Social Security and Medicare are no longer available, those who have made a living off of others will not be looked at favorably by employers; then where will they turn?

These are examples I know of personally of how many individuals are not accepting their own responsibility to grow and be productive in today’s society. We now have a base that is comfortable living at others’ expense. They could be working and paying into their future for Social Security and Medicare benefits, not destroying mine. Seniors are now being denied lifesaving services because there are no funds in Medicare. 

There is an old saying, “Don’t put the cart before the horse.” You need to know the power and work ability of the horse before you get the cart to carry a load. You don’t make a family if you don’t have the means to raise one. Applying for a job you don’t have the skills for requires no common sense. You don’t need game systems, large-screen televisions and “Hollywood” acrylic nails if you can’t put food on the table. 

We’re not teaching individuals to be self-responsible; we’re teaching them to be scheming. And our government on its present course is encouraging it. 

Johanna Barnes is a resident of Kalispell