Decades ago, when I worked for New York City’s Department of Welfare, one of my duties was to visit clients in their homes. The goal was to verify that they were genuinely eligible for our services. But this task was very depressing. It required me to wallow in human misery at first hand.
All too often, I entered dilapidated tenements to call on multi-generational families mired in poverty. Frequently, once inside, a grandmother, a mother and a daughter could be found living in squalor. As per the cliché, the hallway was urine-soaked, the apartment littered with dirty clothing, and half-eaten food sat on a rickety kitchen table.
Many times, the daughter would herself be pregnant. Soon she would add another child to the many already running around the apartment screaming at the top of their lungs. When asked who the father was, she was liable to shrug her shoulders and murmur she was not sure.
If, in the midst of this chaos, I suggested that someone in the family consider preparing for a job, the reaction was revulsion. Then they would explain why. First of all, no jobs were available. Second, they did not possess the qualifications. But third, there was no way they were going to give up “their check.” The money was theirs, they were entitled to it, and I was out of line asking them to risk its loss.
What I was witnessing was the misery of dependency. Sociologists have long documented that extended reliance on public assistance robs people of their initiative. Instead of trying to improve their situation, they accept its shortcomings as unavoidable. They therefore do nothing, in the belief there is nothing to be done.
Even Franklin Roosevelt realized that giving people free money tempts them to be helpless. Nevertheless it is difficult to blame the recipients. An old adage has it that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and they are not about to release the bird they have firmly in hand.
It was heartbreaking to watch so many people destroying their own opportunities, however we are today in the midst of a greater dependency crisis; one that has penetrated to the core of our culture. Moreover, it too can be laid at the feet of government entitlement programs. At present, it is Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that are destroying the chances of millions. And as before, their victims cling to what seems common sense.
Recently, Republicans have been accused of seeking to “kill” Medicare and Social Security. They responded by arguing that they are merely trying to save these programs, but with mixed results. So far, for many, the mere prospect of modifying these entitlements is tantamount to dismantling them.
And what do these critics say, especially the older ones? They declare that they “paid for their benefits and therefore deserve them.” As far as they are concerned, they are a literal entitlement. Many also insist that they have an ironclad contract with the government that must be honored.
What these complainants refuse to recognize, however, is that the government is going broke and in time the bills cannot be paid. Nor do those who grumble perceive themselves as passively dependent like my welfare clients. They too are unwilling to make changes on the grounds that they merit free money. Oh yes, they insist these are their own funds because they contributed to the system, but they neglect the fact that they will receive far more than they paid.
Nonetheless, the biggest problem is that what they want will have more tragic consequences than welfare dependency. My clients back then were ruining their own lives through misplaced greed, whereas today’s freeloaders are ruining the prospects of an entire nation. Because they refuse to see the implications of their desires, they are willing to condemn everyone to financial ruin.
Worst of all are my elderly peers who, although reassured their own benefits will not be touched, are adamant on doing nothing. They should be ashamed that they are condemning their own grandchildren to poverty, but many seem not to have noticed. They are so busy holding on to what must inevitably be relinquished that they fool themselves into believing everything will be all right.
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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