Those Who Work Support Those Who Don't

I have talked about this before.  It is definitely not something new.  However, it does acquire new names.  I have heard it called the socialism, the welfare society, and the latest one: "the attitude of entitlement."  The term: "entitlement" is sure thrown around these days.  It is a definite reality.  What it amounts to is people believing that they are entitled to the many benefits that wealth brings.   I really have no problem with that last statement.  Unless...........people start thinking that the wealth of somebody else belongs to them.  On several occasions, I have had people get upset with me for telling them that the best way to get some money is to get a job.  Do a good job.  Keep your job.  When I was teaching school I was even unfairly accused of calling welfare recipients "lazy bums."  I did not use that term.  A student went home and told his mother that I did.  I was teaching a Social Science unit.  It was sociology.  This was many years ago.  I simply said:  "In our society,  those who work support those who don't work."  A student, (man he was troublesome!) whose divorced mom was on welfare, went home and told her about "the lazy bums."  She called the school.  I talked to her.  She was upset.  I calmed her down.  I told her exactly what happened.  She believed me.  She was apparently embarrassed that she was receiving welfare checks.  But I also told her that she should tell her son to not be telling lies about people.  That boy was on "my list," and I do not mean that in a cruel way.  One day he called another student a "piece of shit."  I said to him:  We do not talk that way in this classroom, I want to talk to your dad, I know he does not live with you.  I'm going to visit him at work."  I did visit his dad.  His dad was a dishwasher/busboy.  The manager of the restaurant allowed me to go back to the kitchen.  We had a short talk.  I do remember thanking him, I congratulated him for not being a lazy person.  I did not do it in a condescending manner........and he knew it.  I applaud "non-laziness."  Lazy people, "entitlement people," have been around a long, long time.  The quote below is proof. 


"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the new wonderful good society which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious."

 Marcus Tullius Cicero        

 (106-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman