Why does it seem to me that all Washington ever seems to talk about these days is bailouts? Bailout Freddie Mac. Bailout Fannie Mae. Bailout Wall Street. Bailout homeowners. Is it possible in America today that no one is allowed to fail?
You know, Phil Gramm was right. We are a nation of whiners. No one wants to believe that failure is an option anymore. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Or learning from your mistakes? Or going through transformative difficulties that just might change your life and your behavior? But it seems like failure is off the board nowadays and that it’s government’s job to rescue everybody.
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Of course, the great thing about America is that you can fail many times, pick yourself up, keep on trying, and then succeed beyond your wildest dreams. But this whole process is being subverted by the political attitude that no one must ever be allowed to fail. I don’t like it. It’s socialism, isn’t it?
Yes, it is – the kindest, nicest, most insidious socialism any of us have ever seen. Yeah, insidious. Probably the most insidious temptation we’ve ever faced.
Let me ’splain.
Imagine that a year ago, I wanted to buy a house. Now, houses around here are pretty darned expensive (thank you very much Federal Government). Under normal circumstances, I couldn’t touch the mortgage on a house around here (being a police dispatcher is not exactly a lucrative venture). At minimum, I’d pay $300,000 for a starter home in not particularly great shape.
I could have gotten a mortgage, though. Don’t doubt that for a second. And, right now, I’d be one of those folks who couldn’t make his payment, who you’d be bailing out. I’d get to keep a house I couldn’t have really afforded in the first place and I’d suffer only negligible consequences.
All I have to do is write to my Congressman, look all sad, and talk about how the mean old mortgage company fooled me with their tricksy contract and all those words. You know that’s probably going to work for me. There aren’t many Congressman these days willing to risk my going to the local newspaper and telling the story about how I went to him for help only to be told that my problems were my problems and that it’s not the job of Congress to fix them for me.
So, boom. Bailout.
Where’s the downside for me in this deal? I get a house when I didn’t have a house before. I might have to take a hit to my credit rating for a little while, but it would be nothing compared to having a foreclosure on my record or even bankruptcy. I would have dodged nearly all of the consequences of my own actions and could keep the proceeds. Other people, people I will never meet, will pay for what I’ve done.
That’s one heck of a temptation. Is it socialism? You bet your life, but it’s socialism with all of the good and none of the bad. And as a bonus, I get the delicious frission of knowing that those rich old men who spend their days swimming around in money bins and wearing monocles are the ones who will pay for the whole thing. Or so I’m told.
That’s new socialism, which always looks bright and shiny and more tempting than the fruit the snake offered Eve. It takes years to get from the People’s Glorious Mortgage Bailout to dilapidated buildings and corrupt police and Lubyanka and lines for bread and vegetables.
Maybe we have the stones to pull ourselves back. Maybe we still have enough folks alive who remember what bad times really were and how amazingly important it is to be able to fail and fail and fail again.
Maybe if I wish hard enough, I’ll get a pony, too.
Tags: Big Government, Democrats, Socialism
Very well put.
I think much of this has to do with the social and political mentality that, I am sorry to say, pervades our legislative branch. I am reporter for a popular publication on the Hill, and last week, at a markup of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who I have never thought to be particularly intelligent, complained about and bemoaned the detriments of “big business.”
Hank didn’t say who exactly he was talking about, and I don’t think he knew. But somehow this populist image has sneaked its way into our culture and politics that sees anybody who succeeds (i.e. professionally, economically, materially) as somehow responsible for the hardships felt by those who do not.
And this is a very socialist-friendly paradigm. I heard a caller on C-Span’s Morning Journal a few days ago echo this sentiment, albeit in very different–and much more honest–terms. He said that he wished the United States could function more like an ant colony, with each citizen performing a prescribed role, working toward the greater good.
I know I do not have to point out to you, sir, everything that is reprehensible, absurd, and frankly stupid about that statement. But it is the mentality that has somehow become widespread in our society. And I fear for the future of our great nation if these “neo-socialists” do not see the error in their ways.
The greatest good is nothing but the betterment of oneself. Coercive utopianism will be our downfall.
Long live the American Republic.
Lachlan
Lachlan, thank you for your comment. It’s tough to not vote yourself all the goodies you can when you know you don’t be paying for them.
How do we resist that impulse and put some shame back into our public dealings? I have no idea.
I attribute the lack of personal responsibility among American citizens to the fact that we have not been asked to assume that responsibility.
As you mention, Americans have this inane idea that they cannot fail; that if they cannot succeed on their own, it is the role of the state to ensure they do not sink into poverty. And the federal government has played into this mentality through the New Deal, the Great Society, and other forms of social welfarism.
Americans must realize that prosperity requires risk and hard work. The government cannot hand one success. It can hand one money, but that only feeds this sick culture of dependency and irresponsibility. I think–I hope–that if Americans are once again given control over and responsibility for our own lives, we will rise to the challenge and prosper.