As our
country begins to take a much more serious look at
entitlement programs such as universal healthcare,
wouldn't it be wise to assess the success of those
programs currently in place. I believe that there is
a fundamental flaw in our government's approach to
helping those in need and I learned this lesson from
a peculiar source as described in this excerpt from
my new book, "Freedom Ain't Free!"
Squirrels
of
Entitlement
"It was after a long morning of repairing roofs in
100 degree weather, and I was ready for a huge
Mexican food lunch. Something about working in the
heat always makes me crave salsa. So, I pulled into
the drive-through and gave my order over the
speakers system to a young man whose broken English
left me wondering if I would get what I actually
ordered. I wasn't that concerned however, because
all Mexican food is comprised of five primary
ingredients anyway. I would get what I ordered in
some form or another. Little did I know that as I
pulled around the corner and took my place behind
the two automobiles in line in front of me that my
understanding of life was about to change forever.
At first, there was nothing remarkable about this
particular drive-through. However, as I put my car
in park and began to "hurry up and wait" for my
food, I noticed that all of the people in the cars
in front of me were looking out of their passenger
side windows. My attention was immediately drawn to
the strangest site that I had ever seen. What was
this wonder to behold? What curiosity had drawn the
attention of all these hungry travelers? Squirrels!
That's right, I said squirrels! At least I thought
they were squirrels. Up until that moment, every
other squirrel that I had ever seen was always about
the business of collecting food. In fact, I would
say that squirrels are typically one of the busiest
creatures on the planet; but not these squirrels.
These squirrels were just sitting there. I could
hardly tell if they were alive or dead. Even more
shocking was that these were the fattest squirrels
that I had ever seen, in that each one had a double
or triple chin and a very large belly. They weren't
on all four legs either. Instead, they were sitting
on their backsides almost as if they were in lazy
boy recliners watching television. I wondered if
there was such a thing as pig squirrels that I was
not aware of. These creatures were so fat that they
reminded me of my old Cuban friend Alfredo who,
after a good meal of black beans, rice and carne
asada, would sit back in his chair, pull his shirt
up over the rim of his large belly, and rub it with
his hand exclaiming, "ay mi panzonito!"
I was so taken aback by these fat little pig
squirrels that it caused me to sit and ponder what
circumstances would have created such a site. How
did they get so fat? What did they eat that would
make them so large? Is there a Slim-Fast for pig
squirrels? Suddenly, to my great astonishment, those
little pig squirrels came to life; dragging their
bellies underneath them as they scrambled all around
the curbside picking up small pieces of some type of
food. They fought each other ferociously for each
morsel of food like two sumo wrestlers over the last
piece of Kung Pao Chicken. Then, just as quickly as
they came to life, they returned to their lazy boy
recliners and awaited the next distribution of food.
As the car in front of me pulled away, and I pulled
up to the drive through window, I realized what the
squirrels were eating. French fries! It was French
fries that had been tossed out of the window of the
car in front of me after the passengers received
their food. That's when the mystery of the taco
stand pig squirrels was finally revealed to me. It
was simple; the patrons of this taco stand felt
sorry for those little squirrels and tossed them
food as they drove by.
Now I'm sure that those taco stand patrons had
the best of intentions as they tossed their food to
those little squirrels, but did they understand the
true ramifications of their actions? How could they
know that the squirrels would trade their instinct
to gather food for a lazy boy recliner and free
French fries? Those customers just wanted to be nice
and to feel as though they were making a difference.
But what would happen to those squirrels if the taco
stand went out of business or even worse, the taco
stand owners realize that French fries don't belong
on a Mexican food menu?
Unfortunately, human beings are no different than
these pig squirrels. Given the choice between work
and handouts, people will usually opt for the
latter. This is why any entitlement program must
focus on maintaining a work ethic. Many of today's
entitlement programs do just the opposite, and they
perpetuate the fat pig squirrel syndrome. Although
the "war on poverty" was probably well intentioned,
it is nothing more than a handful of French fries to
a bunch of hungry creatures. Welfare is a war
against self sufficiency and independence. It robs
good hard working people of their dignity and self
worth.
There is one simple change in philosophy that would
change our welfare program from a complete failure
into the safety net that it was supposed to be. That
is the idea that nothing comes for free. Until this
simple change in philosophy occurs the welfare
program will never be a war against anything but
success. If you want money from the government, then
you need to provide something in return for that
money. Maybe it's just picking up trash on the
streets, but some effort must be required, and that
effort should benefit the community in some way."
This lesson of the pig squirrels applies to every
program our government tries to implement, which is
why we usually end up perpetuating the problem we
are trying to solve. This is something that many of
our founding fathers already knew as indicated in
this quote from Benjamin Franklin. "I am for doing
good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the
means. I think the best way of doing good to the
poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but
leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I
traveled much, and I observed in different
countries, that the more public provisions were made
for the poor, the less they provided for themselves,
and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary,
the less was done for them, the more they did for
themselves, and became richer." So now the only
question is, will we learn from the mistakes of the
past, or will we just continue to throw money at the
problem?
Jay Mcfarland can be heard on Ernie and Jay
Mid-days, Monday - Friday from 10:00AM - 2:00PM on
NewsRadio 1080 KRLD. Email comments to
ernieandjay@cbs.com or visit krld.com. The book,
"Freedom Ain't Free!" is available now at
www.jaymcfarland.com.
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