By Dennis Prager
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
All addictions – whether drug, alcohol, gambling, sexual,
or cigarettes – are very hard to escape.
There is one addiction, however, that might be more
difficult than any other to escape – in part because it is not even regarded as
an addiction. It is Entitlements Addiction, an addiction to getting something
for nothing.
One indication as to the power of Entitlements Addiction
is that, while great numbers of people have voluntarily given up – almost
always at great pain – drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc., few give up an addiction
to entitlements. For the majority of able-bodied people who get cash payments,
food stamps, subsidized housing, free or subsidized health insurance, and other
welfare benefits, the thought of giving up any one of those and beginning to
pay for them with their own earned money is as hard as giving up alcohol is to
an alcoholic.
Politicians know this, which is why it is close to
impossible to ever reduce entitlements. And, of course, the Left knows this,
which is why the Left almost always wins any debate over entitlements. Every
American who is the beneficiary of an entitlement backs entitlements, and many
who are not beneficiaries of entitlements would like to be.
This, aside from ideology, is why the Left constantly
seeks to increase entitlements: The more people receive government benefits,
the more people vote left.
In this sense, the Left in every country – in America,
the Democratic party – should be regarded as a drug dealer. Virtually every
American given a free benefit becomes an addict who relies more and more on his
dealer. Which is exactly what the Left seeks.
As noted at the outset, one reason Entitlements Addiction
is so powerful is that, unlike other addictions, it is not regarded as an
addiction. As a result, few Entitlement Addicts see themselves as addicted.
Why, then, would any of them seek treatment? To the Entitlement Addict,
receiving entitlements is as natural and uncontroversial as breathing air. Air
is free, and so are entitlements.
Another reason Entitlements Addiction is unique among
addictions is that very few drug, alcohol, or gambling addicts believe that
they are owed drugs, alcohol, or their gambling debts. Entitlement Addicts, on
the other hand, believe that society owes them every entitlement they receive –
and often more. The very word used, “entitlements,” conveys the message that
the recipient has “a right” to the benefits. So there is a moral component to
Entitlements Addiction that does not exist among other addicts (except for
opioid dependents who are in pain; these patients really are indeed owed pain
killers, and society is immoral for not allowing them to receive them).
Not only do Entitlement Addicts believe there is moral
virtue to their addiction, so do a vast number of non-addicts known as
Progressives. They believe that there is a moral imperative to give people more
and more entitlements. This, in turn, feeds the moral self-image of those
dependent on entitlements.
Yet another reason for the uniqueness of Entitlements
Addiction is that ultimately it does more damage to society than any of the
other addictions. Other addicts can ruin their own lives and those of loved
ones, and drunk drivers kill and maim people. But society as a whole can
survive their addictions. That is not the case with Entitlement Addicts. The
more people who receive and come to depend on entitlements, the sooner the
society will collapse economically. Society does not directly pay for drug
addicts’ drugs, alcoholics’ alcohol, or the gambling debts of gambling, but society
does pay every penny for Entitlement Addicts’ addiction. In fact, the current
U.S. national debt is about equal to the $22 trillion this country has spent on
entitlement programs in the last 50 years.
When you combine the addiction and selfishness of many
(certainly not all) of those who are dependent on entitlements (including
middle- and upper-class Americans who receive a home-mortgage deduction); the
tendency for it to grow from one generation to the next; the dependence of one
of the two major political parties on the votes of those who receive
entitlements for its very existence; and the belief of tens of millions of
non-addicted Progressives that society is morally obligated to give more and
more people more and more entitlements, it becomes very difficult to see a
solution.
In the meantime, the Entitlement State in every country
is failing, forcing the countries to bring in tens of millions of migrants –
many of whom share none of those countries’ values – to keep the Entitlement
State alive.
This addiction ultimately ruins the character of many of
its recipients, ruins the economy of all the countries in which it exists in
large numbers, and ruins the value system that created the prosperity that made
so many entitlements possible in the first place.
But, other than American conservatives, almost no one
even recognizes it as a major problem, let alone an addiction.
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