Every Friday my syndicated column appears in a bunch of newspapers in southeastern Ontario and Saskatchewan. Here’s this week’s advocating smaller government and taking responsibility as a citizen for future generations.
For the last century we have been engaged in a vast social experiment: instead of requiring people to work hard to succeed, we have tried to create a caring, fairer society where all can prosper and be taken care of. We’ve tried to defeat poverty, to end injustice, and to care for all.
There’s only one problem. We never figured out how to pay for it.
Reading the news lately feels like we’re all standing inches from a precipice. Everyone can see that the cliff is there, but we don’t have the courage to turn around and go in the other direction yet. We’re hoping that rather than tumbling off into the abyss, the cliff will move.
We are living in an age when it’s normal for governments to borrow billions upon billions—and even trillions—with no real plan to pay it all back.
Europe is imploding. China is slowing down. The United States is about to slip into another recession. And we here in Canada, probably the safest country in the world economically, are watching it all happen, helpless.
Yet it’s not only government that is to blame. It’s this whole entitlement society. People figure, “I paid into the system, so I deserve to get a lot out.” We milk it for all it’s worth. A public school teacher retires, but then turns around and gets hired to work as a substitute teacher, “double dipping” and taking a job away from a new graduate. A government worker pads his final year of work with overtime so that his pension is based on an inflated salary. A farmer gets paid to NOT farm his fields, or to chop down an orchard. A doctor’s fee for certain services is reduced, so she turns around and simply bills for different ones.
None of these things is illegal; they are all within the rules. But that’s the point: our whole system is set up so that people can take advantage of the government—or their employers. And what happens when all of this occurs on a grand scale? People start to believe that they’re “owed” the good life, and that they shouldn’t have to work for it.
If you have children before you’re married, the government will pay for your apartment and your food. If you don’t save for your retirement, the government will rescue you. Or, in another sphere, if you’re at an office Christmas party, and you get drunk and go drive and slam into a tree, you can sue your employer for letting you drink. The idea that we are responsible for what we do has been thrown out the window.
And so we see the population of France electing a socialist government whose first action in power was to lower the retirement age from 62 to 60—right at a time when governments are teetering on bankruptcy. Quebec students riot because tuition is too high, instead of asking themselves why they have the cheapest tuition in North America. And Britain starts a vast program to educate parents on how to be a good parent, because it turns out that generations of welfare payments have created a society where people have forgotten how to discipline their children.
Something that can’t go on forever will eventually stop, and I wonder if we’re nearing that point. Everybody has borrowed too much money, from governments on down to citizens. And at the same time we’ve all been clamouring to get a bigger slice of the pie for ourselves. Until recently we’ve believed that the course of human history is always upwards, towards more and more prosperity and freedom and success. But Rome fell, and it took a millennium for civilization to recover. We can crash, too, and that crash is getting ever closer.
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Sheila Wray Gregoire has been married for 29 years and happily married for 24! She loves traveling around North America with her hubby in their RV, giving her signature "Girl Talk" about sex and marriage. And she's written 7 books. About sex and marriage. See a theme here? Plus she knits. Even in line at the grocery store.
I think you’ve just won the ‘Golden Hammer’ award, Sheila, for hitting every nail on the head! The notion that everyone else should be footing the bill for what someone feels they are entitled to is simply insane. You’d think we might learn from countries like Greece, which is in a desperate situation due to the fact that citizens retire early, and avoiding taxation is the national pastime. Even the simplest logic tells me that situation isn’t sustainable.
couldn’t agree more.
Sheila, I thought you might find this blog post interesting, if you haven’t seen it already….
http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/update-court-decision-make-implosion-more-likely-health-law-to-add-1-15-trillion-to-national-debt/
In the words often used by a mutual friend:” And all God’s people said….. AMEN!”
This column was needed and i have to wonder if it may be too late. The marriage between the culture of entitlement and Madison Avenue gave birth to credit cards, high taxes to pay for every service imaginable and the idea that we can have it all-and from cradle to grave.
we ARE at the precipice, and the turning back must take place NOW if there is to be any hope of turning this ship around. And the odds are against us even if many of us do turn around now. The forces arrayed against us are determined to exert more control over our lives, not less, and history has shown that in times of adversity, people are more than willing to exchange their liberty for empty promises of security.
The problem facing us is less finacial than spiritual. If we could take care of the spiritual end of things, we woujld increase the odds of surviving the financial chemotherapy that will be required.
As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun”. What has happened to our society is what happened to Israel and Judah several times in biblical history: our societry, in general has succumbed to idolatry. They serve a regular pantheon of false gods, such as the most recognizable of all, Mammon, chief of the false gods (he has been known to be portrayed in red tights). Mammon is accompanied by his maidservants celebrity, corruption and hedonism. We have gone from a society that went from most people either being believers in the Triune God of the Bible, or at least being in general agreement that the moral principles established through the Bible and expressed in the Judaeo-Christian worldview were the ideal that all should strive for, so that we may leave something better for our posterity. However since the end of the second world war, partly fueled by the prosperity that arose from the rebuilding after, we have seen a generation that has rejected the God of the Bible. forces that bubbled under the surface through the 19th centuries, who organized in the early 20th were ready to assert themselves in full force by the 1950’s, with the rise of pornography, which has since become more and more pervasive, to the point where it is virtually everywhere.Immodesty, Contraception joined hands with porn and alcohol and drugs and gave birth to the sexual revolution. In order for these “:values to have taken over, all that had been considered bedrock in the past had to be swept away, and there was no better way to do that than to hold Judeo-christian principles and those who preach them up to ridicule. people can survive scandal and adversity, but not ridicule. They had to paint the movers and shakers of western civilization of centuries past as rapacious, vicious oppressors of anything that was not white and christian. The progressive seizure of control of public schools and the media made all this possible. Thus we have now a society that cares for little more than instant gratification for themselves, and doesn’t give a thought to what awaits the next generation. They don’t know their children because they have been in day care while parents both work (if they are even still together) to pay for the extravagant lifestyle which they often supplement with credit cards… After all the media tells us we have to have the latest and the best… that IPOD 4 from last year just won’t do… Gotta have the 4S now, or you’re a nobody… and make sure your kids have one too! families are destroyed by the rat race, and debt, or worse, by society’s constant hammering away that why stay marrieds if it isn’t working out? Find yourself! find your TRUE soulmate! We need to turn the moral compass around before we can adopt the attitudes needed to fix the financial ones. It’s nice to say it’s time to go back to the way our grandparents did it, but it may be too late for that as the forces against us will promise prosperity in their new global scheme which will be all about consumerism, likely driven by smart phones, smart cards, and eventually implanted RFID chips.
As an aside, I offer a possible explanation for the sudden, rapid and pervasive increase in the number of tattoos and piercing out there. Could it be that the powers that be are conditioning people to eventually accept the implantation of a “trendy” RFID chip in their bodies? hey it looks cool, and does all the things a smart phone does!
The choice is stark. Either we, as a society turn back to Jesus Christ and His teachings under the power of the Holy Spirit, or we will wear our chains in silence. If society does not as a whole, there is nothing stopping any of us as individuals from taking that step. Christians have lived underground under persecution before, we may have to do so again. In the end a godless society will implode and destroy itself. Don’t be on the losing side.
Yes, it is all very scary to watch but thankfully we know how it all ends and that HE is still on the throne. He is our protector and provider. He gives us so many precious promises. I always told my children to never be afraid of what is going on in the world because God will always be in control and hold them in the palm of His hand.
Our culture of debt scares me, honestly. We’re in the process of getting out of debt and people are positively aghast when we tell them we are not using credit cards any more. “But what if you have an emergency???” We’re saving up cash to use for emergencies. And it’s amazing how one’s definition of “emergency” changes when they’re using cash instead of credit. But it’s become not just acceptable, but normal to be up to our eyeballs in debt. And that? Is scary. Our governments are acting the same way, slapping mere band-aids over issues. Throwing money at the problem instead of SOLVING the problem. That never ends well. All it does is perpetuate the cycle. It’s true for our individual economies at home, and it’s true for the larger economy of the country.
I don’t think that socialism is the problem and capitalism will solve that problem. Because at least the way that I read your blog it sounded like you were saying everyone just needs to “pull up their boot straps” and as far as I am concerned though socialism has its problems but the world were everyone is on their own (Capitalism) is a terrible place to be. The accusation that everyone bleeds the system to look out for number one is simplified and unfair. Right now my husband and I are both going through our undergrads and are eligible for lots of grants and bursaries (not to mention student loans), but we are not excepting them, instead we are living on as little as possible and working as hard as we can. I know lots of people that are doing the same thing. The dooms day message that we are all going to hell in a hand basket because of goverment programs is getting tired.
I don’t think Sheila is saying that EVERYONE is milking the system for all its worth, or that everyone is only looking out for number one. But I think she’s right in that enough people are doing that, that it IS pushing the system to the breaking point.
My husband and I are done with our undergrads, but we’re still paying on student loans, and we took out a car loan last summer. But, like you, we’re doing our best to live as simply as we can, and scraping by on what we have, and we’re making it work. I too know a lot of people who are doing the same thing, but it’s still not enough to make a long-term difference in the direction our country (world?) is going.
Hi Paige,
Neither socialism nor capitalism is the cause or the cure for where we are at. The real cause is a society that has turned its back on God, and gone chasing idols. When the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit is rejected in favour of reliance on self, the true nature of man comes out. Pride, greed, sloth , gluttony, anger, envy etc. …Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
What we are seeing is proof of original sin, and our powerlessness over it playing out before our eyes.
Turning back to God collectively is the ONLY way we will get to the point where we can even begin to turn things around. We can’t rely on any government programs, or “isms”. Only the guidance given to man by God, accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit to live it. We will never live it perfectly, none of us, but with Him, we are convicted, and can correct ourselves. We have stewardship over our lives, and our families. we can all start there. Government of any kind is not the solution, but a righteous government that recognizes the Supremacy of God has its place and especially its limitations. But ultimately the solution lies in a decision that each one of us can make: Joshua 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Even if everything man has constructed crashes down, and it will, we know that we are in His will and service, and under His protection for eternity.
I don’t think I would consider grants and bursaries to be ‘milking the system’ at all. I consider ‘milking the system’ to be when certain circumstances are used in order to avoid responsibility. Here’s an example: some time ago, the house next door to us was being rented. The family living there consisted of a common-law husband and wife, their 5 children, and two of their siblings. The wife was expecting child #6. In the 20 months they lived there, no one in the household was employed. As they lacked the ability to speak quietly, we often heard them talking about having more kids, because they needed more money (family allowance benefits from the Province – in other words, they were using their children as income). They always seemed to have money for their ‘wants,’ though: cigarettes, daily trips to the coffee shop, a pool for the kids, etc. – but they weren’t making their rent payments. In other words, this family was a drain on the system – and they were perfectly ok with that.
Bravo to you and your husband for doing your best to live as frugally as possible. My wife and I are doing our best to achieve debt freedom, and should accomplish this early in 2013 (excepting our mortgage, which we plan to pay off early). For us, credit is now a thing of the past, and we don’t plan on ever going into debt again.
With regard to capitalism vs. socialism, I’ll be the first to admit that capitalism isn’t perfect, however, again using Europe as an example, socialism has proven to be a dismal failure.
Well said. Acting in a socially responsible manner works both ways. As individuals we need to work hard and do our best but as a nation we also need to have the compassion and good sense to care for our citizens in need. It’s not about “isms.” Neither capitalism or socialism provide answers that will work in every case. That’s what common sense and caring are for.
Sheila, very *soberingly well* stated! We *must* be praying daily for the Church and for our nation (and world)…and speaking the truth in love every chance we get.
May I simply say a resounding “YES!” Thanks for swimming against the tide.
Normally I totally agree with your columns,
but you said “If you have children before you’re married, the governments will pay for your apartment and your food.” Say what!? Maybe in your province but certainly not in mine!
And you said, “If you don’t save for your retirement, the government will rescue you.” Excuse me!? My parents live hand to mouth, barely scraping by. Is that what you call the government rescuing you? My parents are surviving on God’s grace, certainly NOT the governments.
Thank sharing your experience Sharon. Your message is really important for people who have perhaps not lived, seen or experienced real need first hand.
I agree our current social/economic situation is scary, but what is the solution? Abandoning those in need?
I would encourage people criticizing social spending to visit an inner city housing complex. Do you think the people there are living the good life and milking the system? With today’s austerity measures living on social assistance/support means living well below the poverty line. That’s not milking the system, it’s barely scraping by to provide milk. There are vast systemic issues (discrimination, access to services, lack of education, nutrition and many other symptoms) that contribute to their circumstances. Not everyone can pull themselves up by their boot straps without a helping hand. Living under such conditions, how do you expect the children and youth growing up there will fare in their own future? Is it fair to hold them to the same standard as children who have grown up in a stable family with strong social and economic support? If we blame a single mother for her situation (which is not fair), we are abandoning her children as well. We need to focus on prevention and improve services that empower and enable people to move forward on their own, rather than blaming the victim’s of a broken system.
Ksiddy,
Abandoning those in need may be precisely what we have done by passing the buck to the government to discharge functions that should rightly be performed by people and the churches. We send a cheque, and then go about our own lives without getting any dirt under our nails. We rest in the idea that by commmissioning government to drag people into a system that encourages long term dependency that we have done our part.
As Keith green once put it ” Instead of my sending in a cheque, why don’t i go instead?” We are called to the mission gfield whether it is in the heart of Africa or our own backyards. A cheque does not replace a relationship, where someone can be led to Christ, and even independence. When independence is not an option, a “visiting angel” is much more cathartic than a big impersonal system such as those our disabled and elderly are oiften submerged while we go play golf, or take the kids to hockey.
We could learn a thing or two from the Latter Day Saints. They have an immense church welfare system set up that will help families out, in terms of getting them back on their feet and restored to their dignity again. The system is designed to be a temporary hand up. In Mormonism, there is a tremendous emphasis on taking responsibility for oneself and family, and contributing to church life.
Spot on, Neal! The worst thing we can do for those in need is think we’ve done all that’s necessary by letting the State ‘take care of them’.
Better our care than our cheque…..
Here in the UK, we are on the precipice, like most Western nations are, but I think it’s hearts that need to turn first. And only the Truth will do that.
Oh, Sheila, I so agree. I’ve been harping about personal responsibility for years. It’s as if the concept is non-existent now. If we would all accept personal responsibility for our actions, each and every one of us, we could change the world.
Personally, I pray that this is a quality we are instilling in our children.
It seems to me that you’re talking about two different subjects here. Entitlement is one thing, basic human rights another. It’s easy to say that everyone in need is in their circumstances because – through a sense of entitlement – they haven’t bothered to provide for themselves, but it’s just not so. Ask the thousands of marginalized women among our elders who have worked hard all their lives contributing to the care and well being of their family only to find themselves living in poverty during their old age, or the thousands of men and women who worked all their lives for low wages, without an opportunity to put money by. They’ve worked hard and they deserve the dignity of being able to provide for their most basic needs. We should not assume that we have a right to the biggest, best, and newest things. We need to differentiate between wants and needs. We need to understand that we all have to work hard and to take responsibility for both our personal and national well being. But we also need to acknowledge that we are a wealthy enough country to take care of our poor, elderly, and sick…and that we have a moral obligation to do so.
I’d agree, Beth, but here’s the problem: with the government going into as much debt as it is, and paying so much for all kinds of stuff that really isn’t necessary, there is going to be no money to support the basic needs of people who can’t help themselves in just a few years. There simply won’t be. And that’s what worries me. Government has legitimate functions, but lately it’s been getting too big, and everyone is expecting to get as big a share of the pie as they can. The more that happens, the more our pie will shrink. And soon government won’t even be able to do that which it needs to.
Indeed Sheila…..
Now the ball is in our court as citizens. Each of us has stewardship over one vote, and will be held accountable for how we used it.
Justice John Roberts hit the nail on the head in his Obamacare ruling when he said “It is not the job of the court to protect people from their political choices” In other words, the place to do that is at the ballot box, which fortunately we still have here, relatively uncorrupted (No to voting machjnes, but that’s a topic for another day).
It is our responsibility not to get caught up in the Rah! Rah! pompom waving of the mainline political parties, and start looking past parties and their slick advertising which is usually more about why it’s a fate worse than death to vote for the other guy than what they bring to the table) and start looking seriously at party policies themselves, and at the candidates who are offering themselves to service, and base our decisions on whether we believe the people and the parties the represent represent an honest , common sense approach to dealing with the issues, regardless of how unpopular they may be. We have to stop voting for one just because another is worse, based on what the media tells us about who is “winning”.
Hi Beth, One reason why so many people find themselves with nothing at the end of the line, and become marginalized, is not because the government has done noithing to help them, but rather has done too much , the wrong way. The Canada pension Plan, like US social security is a mirage. It is really niothing but a Ponzi scheme. There is no “fund” where the money collected for it is duly socked away and invested for the future security of those who paid in. Rather, what it is, is that a certain amount (insufficient) is taken out of this year’s tax receipts to pay those who are no longer working. We are hitting the crisis point now, because guess who turns 65 this year? That’s right! the first of the baby boomers. So from this day forward you will have fewer people working to support more people collecting. so one of several things needs to happen. The government can raise taxes on those young people still working so they can pay off these unfunded liabilities. They can borrow money, which our children will have to pay back to cobver these unfunded liabilities. They can cut some programs, and move it over to cover the unfunded liabilities, or they can “print” fiat money, which will lead to inflation, which is effectively a tax increase, as all products and services will rise, and no one is further ahead.
Houston, we have a problem. All of those “solutions” are nothing more gthan shuffling the deck furniture on the Titanic. Our sosecurity systems in teh west are based on the original one cooked up by Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck back in the 1880s. he knew it would win him the public support he needed by promising every German worker who retired at age 65 that they would be taken care of, so people happily paid in. One problem. raere was the german worker that would live until 65. That was the province of the gentry. Workers and peasants were old in their forties, and more often than not dead at 50. When our modern systenms came into being in the forties and fifties, living beyond 65 became the norm, and now people are living much longer on average. They just set 65 as an arbitrary age based on Bismarck’s system. Ooops!
If we do not collapse as a civilization beforehand, and wake up and come tpo our senses before that happens, we need to get to a place not where the government , as France’s chief lunatic Hollande has done, and reduced teh retirement age, what we need to do, is recognize that most of us now in our thirties, forties and fifties may never get a retirement , per se. We need to realize that it is not a “right”. Someone is going to have to pick up the slack.
The solution is that all people below a certain age need to accept that CPP is off the table. Gone. Forever. They will need to prepare for their own retirements, if they can. However those who are on it, or fast approaching a point where they can no longer work, need to be honoured, since it will be beyond their capacity to make a go of it. that is the reality concerning government pensions. Failure to address this means collapse, and then nobody gets paid, and the elderly WILL starve, and not just the elderly and marginalized.
That’s the extent of the problem, Beth. Those of us of able body and mind will have to figure out ways to take care of our own people and communities. Life is about to change beyond all recogniotion, and anyone who tells you there is an easy way out if you just follow them….. we’ll don’t buy a used car or any real estate in florida from them.
We are at a crossroads. We go back to judeo-christian principles, and live ion liberty by the sweat of our brow, or we follow empty promises of someone who will enslave you, in body and spirit.
Fabulously put!! Thankfully in our city retired teachers are not allowed to substitute so the new ones get a chance of getting into the system and getting experience as well as stopping the double dipping. As for the rest, much of society takes the “it’s all about me” attitude and there seems to be no consequences for their actions. People enter false claims with auto insurers, workman’s compensation etc., abuse the system and when some that really need it can’t get it, it infuriates me!! No government is popular when they pull back, but the benefits are multiple (aka what Ralph Klein did for Alberta). The bloodletting was hard, but the province is in such a good state right now it should be an example to others.
If this is a rant, (as you proclaimed on Facebook) then rant away! We need more meaningful rants with a purpose. (Instead of all of the irritating complaining being passed off as something I should be expected to read, respect, and respond to accordingly.)
I think a lot more of us are seeing what you’re talking about and have been waking up to it for a while. I won’t get into examples, your other readers are handling that for us (and I have a headache so I need to keep it short). I think part of the trouble is that even though we see it, we’re not quite sure what we can do. Of course we can vote, but what else?
That’s where people like you come in, (and hopefully me) and others who are willing to write/speak/ live in such a way as to inspire people to live lives empowered by God, not the government. Start with the individual, start with the marriage, start with the family. Teach people to do it God’s way and we probably won’t have to worry about changing society as a whole.
Just a thought.
Great article, Sheila! I’ve been thinking about the fall of Rome lately, too. There are many parallels. It should also be noted that thanks to birth control and free abortion, our birth rates in Canada are lower than our death rates. We aren’t replacing ourselves, so who’s going to financially support the baby boomers when they retire? :/
Having just come through an Independence Day south of the border, the following was broadcast on Focus on the Family last Wednesday. I happen to catch in the car. Very interesting insights that might be of interest to some of the commenters.
http://media.focusonthefamily.com/free-downloads/mp3/ffde-20120704-america-through-an-immigrants-eyes.mp3
Amen, and Amen!!!!
have you read The Harbinger?
You nailed it . . . except the US is already deep in recession and we’re about to slip into a depression and our currency is extremely unstable. Since US currency has been the basis for world currency for decades the implications of a major devaluing, major inflation or even collapse are horrifying on a global scale.