For years, the television show "Desperate Housewives" was one of my Sunday night guilty pleasures. There were those I ran across who said that it was glorifying any number of immoral lifestyles. I disagreed. While there may have been a season of profit for all manner of misdeeds, inevitably there were consequences. Often, the consequences were appropriate. Sometimes people learned from the consequences, and sometimes they did not. In that respect, if no other, the show struck me as amazingly true-to-life.
To me the consequences were never as starkly displayed as they were in the very first episode. As one of the husbands was away doing business, one of the wives was at home, doing (ahem) the lawn boy. At one point in the discussion afterward, as she is complaining about her life as it is, the lad asks why she got married. She replied that her husband had promised to give her everything she had ever wanted, and when pressed further, she confirmed that yes, he had kept his word. That left him with a final question: "Then why are you here with me?"
"Because I wanted all the wrong things," she replied.
I had to give the writers respect for that one. It was original conflict, and the one that never goes out of style, as much a part of today as it was right back at the beginning. People have an infinite talent for wanting the wrong things. And even when we discover that one "thing" that we have been after is the "wrong thing," that still doesn't mean that we won't go after something else that is just as wrong. It seems to be our nature. We ignore that at our peril.
Right now, there are many in America, and the rest of the world, that are a lot like that particular housewife. They are very attached to the stuff that others provide for them, they feel absolutely entitled to it as a matter of fact. But they don't really appreciate it, and it doesn't make them happy. It can't, because deep down it reminds them that they are not doing for themselves. That's a great way to live for a domestic pet, and acceptable for those truly disabled, but for a human being still able to work, with more than a shred of dignity left, it's a rotten existence. Fortunately (or not?), stay on the roles very long and the dignity goes pretty fast.
Some people might call this kind of indefinite support charity. Others might call it using government to take care of people. Honestly, it is neither. Charity by its nature is voluntary, which cuts out anything to do with the government. And government is not equipped to "care." Anyone who has ever had consistent dealings with the IRS, the DMV, and Postal Service knows what I am talking about. The best that you can hope for is a reasonable amount of professionalism as they accomplish their duties. The worst is the stuff of the evening news. Most falls somewhere in between.
I bring up the subject of benefits because it is likely to become a hot-button issue this year. Unemployment benefits for many have already stretched out to the allowed maximum of 99 weeks, with people clamoring for another extension. This will be a heavy burden on an economy that, despite administration claims, is still weak and likely to get worse under the demands this year of Obamacare and several areas raising the minimum wage. The final pieces of the discouraging puzzle are the annual deficits, and total national debt. We could not afford the benefits we had before. We cannot afford the increased structure that begins this year. Additional taxes will not fill the hole. It is not a question of if people lose benefits, but when, how, and how much debt continues to accrue to future generations.
Most of our leaders have already shown that they are unwilling to make the hard choices needed to correct the situation. It is up to the voters to express their will. Unless the nation gets a spine back, and quickly, things are going to be getting a lot more desperate around here soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment