I’m not sure there’s much percentage in talking about percentages.
Divvying folks into groups, and then relying on people to “stay” within their group — behaving according to one’s specifications — seems . . . kind of creepy.
Last year’s “Occupy” movement, with its relentless pitching of the “99 percent,” demonstrated that creepy/icky factor pretty well.
But Mitt Romney had to horn in on the action. “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” he said. These wards of the state, he went on to say, believe that
- they are victims
- government has a responsibility to care for them
- they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it
Furthermore, “these are people who pay no income tax,” Romney stated. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Well, not all folks who are somehow “dependent on government” — a group ranging from Social Security retirees and the non-working poor to federal employees and agribusinesses and Solyndras feeding at the federal trough — necessarily want to increase their own ranks. Not a few are savvy enough to notice that the system that feeds them would, if larded up with more recipients, be made less capable of feeding them.
As for the logic of “not biting the hand that feeds you,” the advice of the late Thomas Szasz is pertinent: “maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself.”
After all, many of the people who may qualify, technically, as being “dependent on government” would rather not be. And might like the option of being less encumbered by government “help.”
Mitt, I wouldn’t write them off yet.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
10 replies on “Bite the Hand”
There is about 2 minutes, I believe, right at that juncture that is missing from the “unedited” tape. We cannot know the full context of what he was saying, yet the media, left and right, are having a cow over this. Somehow, in all the brouhaha over it, the terrorist attack that killed our Ambassador and 3 others and the fact that our state department with 3 days advance notice didn’t think that or that 9/11 was a worthy enough date to beef up security. This is not being talked about anymore. Why is that? It’s a major failure of our president and his cabinet. That’s why. I would say “mission accomplished” for the left, the president, and his cronies.
To lump Social Security in with the other parasites is very disturbing to me. I didn’t ask for SS, it was a government run insurance for my retirement that made sense, actually. The politicians used it as a cash cow and stole billions to buy votes plus the fact I gave them real dollars at the time I paid into it and they give me, inflated fiat!!!
I have a lot of friends that died before ever collecting a dime so now that the system is broke, somehow I am a member of the parasitic community living off of the government. Thanks for the kind words!
There are 46% of Americans that pay no income taxes. Romney said 47%. Romney said that there are 47% that will vote for Presbo no matter what. Hope he is wrong about that. Also hope he is wrong that those are closely overlapping groups and unlikely to change. I greatly fear that he is right. If he is wrong, then he will win and it won’t even be close. If he is right, and about this point that the media is trying to vilify him for, then he may lose.
dagney- the Libyan affair has all the stink of a failed CIA effort to round up many of the missing weapons that we had given to the rebels. The killed guy was doing all kinds of un-ambassedor-like things and was probably the point man in trying to collect the arms. Ironic that he was probably killed by US supplied arms.
Now the media is doing due diligence and damage control to keep the attention of the public off of the screwup so that we won’t question too closely what the hey that the CIA was up to now and why they were messing up.
CIA is turning into Presbo’s SS.
What was in the edited out 1-2 minutes of what Romney said and why was this interview, made back in May, being trumpeted now?
I am in the 46% that doesn’t pay taxes and I take exception to the claim that just because the tax laws allow me to not make a “contribution” to our government, that that makes me a dependent free-loader. Not paying income taxes doesn’t force me to be on welfare, nor to receive subsidies! I don’t like being lumped in with that group.
Many of those in the 47% pay taxes but they remain dependent on government nonetheless. Think of federal workers. Many would take offense at the idea that they are mooching off the private sector but that doesn’t change the fact that they wouldn’t have an income without the private sector. To add insult to injury, many of those in the public sector make more than those who foot the bill.
NOT having heard NOR read the speech- even the edited version (in that entiretity)- I THINK that what Mr. Romney was (probably) referring to is the SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH & FIFTH (and possibly more) geenrations of people on welfare– and who get the welfare check; EBT cards, Medicaid AND DO NOT WANT TO WORK. AND OBAMA HAS INCREASED THEIR RANKS.
Just my 5 cents worth
Unfortunately, Mr. John C. Bisely is under the same impression as most Americans regarding Social Security.
SS is not a “government run insurance” for their retirement.
As ruled by SCOTUS in Flemming v. Nestor and Helvering v. Davis, Social Security taxes are not contributions or savings, but simply taxes, and that Social Security benefits are simply a government spending program, no different than, say, farm price supports. Congress and the president may change, reduce, or even eliminate benefits at any time. (Cato Institute article on Social Security’s Sham Guarantee.)
So sorry, once it is taken from you your FICA no longer belongs to you according to SCOTUS. Since it is no longer yours, you are living off the government.