Patterson: Relying on the government has become our culture
Tom Patterson
East Valley resident Tom Patterson (pattersontomc@cox.net) is a retired physician and former state senator.
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samkat posted at 11:18 pm on Sat, Dec 31, 2011.
Tom: I suppose you never took a dime from Medicare or Medicaid while you were practicing medicine. Did you pay every dime of your medical training? I imagine there are many government programs you may have tapped along your journey to retirement. How, did you decline Social Security and Medicare when you became eligible.
Dale Whiting posted at 4:14 am on Sun, Jan 1, 2012.
Tom,
Don't dispare! While "samkat" likely did catch you in a huge bit of hypocracy, you need not respond. We all assume he's correct. I do know of some doctors who did get through medical school on their own, borrowing, then paying it all back. But they did have to participate in medicare/medicaid to do so. And where many thought our new Affordible Healthcare Act would be reducing this bit of welfare for the rich, most now understand and concur with the AMA in its passage. But yours is a fine piece anyway.
For example, you ask through the shades of your Western eyes, "Why do women in many Muslim countries tolerate being treated as legal inferiors?" And instead of blaming religion, you blame culture. You got that one right. Have you been watching American Muslim? Truth will out, even from Neo-cons!
Just know this. When it's truely cultural, the treatment is not seen as inferior. In many cases, its seen as protective. Like beauty, the characterization of the treatment is all in the eye of the beholder. Have you extensive education in sociology? It would appear that you might![smile]
Arizona Willie posted at 10:25 am on Sun, Jan 1, 2012.
People depend on the government because they have learned they cannot trust private enterprise.
Private enterprise has repeatedly been caught selling them impure food and medicine because it is profitable.
Private enterprise demanded their loyalty as employees and then laid them off in order to increase profits.
Private enterprise used their labor and expertise to build thriving companies such as Whirlpool, Levi, Hershey and many others and then exported their jobs to other countries in order to increase profits and justify huge bonuses for executives.
Private enterprise bribes Congressmen to write legislation giving them tax breaks so they wind up paying no or almost no tax.
Tell us please ... why people should trust private enterprise and not turn to government?
I notice that you, and all your right wing relatives, talk about the government spending " other peoples money " and what you mean is " MY MONEY ".
You want the benefit of living in this country but don't want to pay the rent. Which is what taxes are. They are the price of living here. You wouldn't let people live in houses / apartments you own without paying rent.... why should you live in this country without paying rent / taxes?
If you hate our government so much ... just repay all the loans you likely got going through med school and then expatriate yourself to someplace like Ethiopia. You would love it there. No taxes .. no functional government. You could hoard every penny and run your hands through your pile of money every day because there are no functional government guaranteed banks either. But I'm sure you hate those government guarantees too so that won't matter to you.
Your letter eventually breaks down into more moaning about taxes. That's all that really motivates you. You don't want to pay the bill for living here.
chatmandu002 posted at 11:37 am on Sun, Jan 1, 2012.
Tom,
True statements you are making. To bad their are so many liberal/progressive/socialists commenting and disparaging your comments. We've lost the personal responsibility of citizenship in this country. Our government has combined the poor and middle class to form the "Dependent" class. Dependent on the largeness and philanthropy of a big government. Our government is now headed down the socialist path with its inevitable doom. All the decades of political compromise has resulted in a population dependent on and voting for more welfare. An economic system taxed and regulated out of existences. A government run for political expediency instead of the rule of law. Lost are the values of faith, honesty, decency, civility and responsibility. Who is responsible for this mess? "We The People"
Rich posted at 1:35 pm on Sun, Jan 1, 2012.
"People depend on the government because they have learned they cannot trust private enterprise." And do not care to work too hard, think too much or accept responsibility. Private enterprise is always predictable, always acts in it's own interest and is undoubtedly the preferred system for responsible, free people.
"Tell us please ... why people should trust private enterprise and not turn to government?" Because government is unpredictable, chaotic, unethical and overblown to the point of impotency on anything vaguely important. It creates a bureaucracy that eventually crashes leaving anarchy behind in it's ashes. Turning to government to do anything other than put up with a few basics, badly and expensively done is just the slow suicide of a society.
Cerulean posted at 4:19 pm on Sun, Jan 1, 2012.
Tom,
This is a good column – except that you skipped what the U.S. spends on the military today as compared to 1870. I believe that military spending is the largest appropriation in the budget. The military even gets a good percentage of the ‘discretionary’ spending.
I do agree that, as a culture, we could relearn self-reliance and savings.
Arizona Willie posted at 1:04 pm on Mon, Jan 2, 2012.
Cerulean, I believe we understand self-reliance quite well.
Every working person knows they cannot depend on the company they work for. Every worker lives in fear for his job.
They can't rely too much on the government. They might get unemployment for awhile if their employer didn't contest it. Yep, many employers lay people off and then dispute them getting unemployment.
Unemployment won't even hardly buy groceries for a single person, let alone a family with kids.
People do expect to have Social Security when they get old.
Is that what you mean by depending of Government? You want to cut that out don't you?
Depending on Social Security is hardly depending on government. It is supposed to be an independent concern, but government has raided the money to spend on wars instead of raising taxes.
No, I don't see people as being dependent on government.
I think everyone is pretty self reliant. They don't look to government to give / find them a job. They go to employment agencies or unions ( the lucky ones ).
I really don't know where right wingers get this stuff about people depending on government.
If anyone depends on government it is corporation. They depend on government to write them favorable legislation and to put tariffs on competing products from other countries and for subsides.
Yes, if you want to see dependency look to corporations ... not individuals out there trying to scratch out a living.
Cerulean posted at 8:08 pm on Mon, Jan 2, 2012.
Arizona Willie, your point is well made and I agree. Now I am sitting here vacillating, weighing my conviction of the need for more or do we have just enough self-reliance. I read an interesting comment by someone unrelated to this discussion. The comment was made by Clive James, an old man very much like Tom Patterson. He reminds me that we live in a community and that what we have is what we leave for the next generation, for someone else. “The children will be here, taking their turn on earth,” he said.
Now I have decided that rather than complain about the school lunches as a means of self-reliance; I would eliminate some of the energy wasting, air polluting bus routes and make the pick-up stops farther apart. Children can walk to school, up-hill in the snow, rain, haboobs or sweltering heat. They will reduce consumption while they build physical endurance. I guess the point I want to make is that, with so many people, small changes can make a big difference.
Ring of Gyges posted at 12:16 pm on Tue, Jan 3, 2012.
@Rich. Rich stated, "Private enterprise is always predictable, always acts in it's own interest and is undoubtedly the preferred system for responsible, free people." If this isn't an example of an oxymoronic statement, then I don't now what is. Unless you are the owner or a shareholder, how is working for another person make you responsible and free?
Private enterprise is always predictable, you are correct. Because they look out for their own interest, they create a fanciful atmosphere of self-reliance and personal responsibility that seems to have never faded here in America. Large corporations at the federal level, and medium sized corporations at the state level, are anything but responsible and free (free market). One only needs to look at where government subsidies (essentially tax breaks) are directed in order to figure this out.
If private enterprise is the paramount of free people, then why was their such a fervor for workers unions and co-op's in the late 1890's? And why was their a need to development of one of the most successful democratic and egalitarian pieces of social legislation in the 1940's...Social Security? Was it because private enterprise was doing such a great job with providing basic needs for Americans?
Yes, government is unpredictable and even tyrannical,but to claim that private enterprise is a bastion of freedom here in America is a joke, and it's getting tiresome. Private enterprise makes totalitarian governmental regimes seem like a land flowing with milk and honey. There is absolutely zero oversight to what goes on in private companies. At least in government, we have some control of who occupies public offices.
Lastly, your statement of anarchy is confusing. You speak of it in pejorative terms, when in fact, anarchy is the ultimate exercise of personal freedom when it is exercised politically, economically, and socially. When you can speak and chose for yourself in all three of these areas, then, and only then, are you truly free.
VofReason posted at 12:51 pm on Tue, Jan 3, 2012.
I have the rare and unique experience of being around elderly folks on a regular basis. Many are certainly reaping the benefits of Medicare/Medicaid, but they perhaps rightly can say that they paid into it for years and should gain the benefit. What you don't hear them say is that they were owed something that they did not work for and surprisingly many of them grew up in humble beginnings. Yes, that means that when their family could not afford something, they didn't go out and buy it anyway or complain to the government that they needed to have it or it wasn't fair. They did something that they use to call "living within your means". They look to the Government for safty and infurstructure, not for sustanance.
mnjcpa posted at 12:53 pm on Tue, Jan 3, 2012.
Tom - you've presented a beautiful overview of the problem in America today.
And it ALL is directly linked to liberalism. The debt we have in this country is not attributable to Democrat or Republican - but a malaise in America that is culturally destructive.
I see you have some nit-pickers that want to take the issue down to a miniscule idea - but it's as broad and as deep as you describe. Something dramatic needs to change or we're headed as fast as a train to Europe. This administration seems to want that to happen.
This real life example says it all. I was visiting with one of my clients that owns a small business. Nice little business that has kept every one of their employees (50+) during this depression. He was looking for a new manager of a department. Interviewed multiple candidates and thought he found the right one. When the applicant was in the final stages of the interviewing process, he was asked how soon he could start work. His reply? Another 4 months because that's when his unemployment benefits ran out.
Seriously? You have a great job offer - and you want it on your terms because you want to bilk the system for another 4 months of unemployment benefits?
That's the culture problem in a nutshell.
Rich posted at 3:43 pm on Tue, Jan 3, 2012.
Ring
Where is the oxymoron? Free and enterprise? Responsible and free? Did you mean to say moronic? Free and enterprise might work, given government regulation. Are you saying they are opposed principles? Like military and intelligence etc. I confess, while I love word play, I missed it in your explanation.
hljmesa posted at 6:31 am on Mon, Jul 30, 2012.
Educate yourself and read this book, Tom:
http://wendellpotter.com/deadlyspin/