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The Resentment Sentiment (Pursuit vs Laziness) Is it fair?

Posted by LetsShrug 13 years, 3 months ago to Culture
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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ” (Declaration of Independence).

You do NOT have a RIGHT to the following just because you exist:
Food
Healthcare
A home
A car
A driver's license
A job
A bed
A hot shower
Clothing
Day care
Free rent
Or free ANYthing

You do, however, have the right, and freedom, to PURSUE all of these things, and sometimes it's really really hard work. It is not written anywhere that you HAVE TO pursue happiness, it's up to each individual to decide how happy they want to be and to work toward that accordingly. However, the lazier you are the less happy you'll likely be. Or at least that's the idea.
We have become a society of rewarding laziness on a grand scale. Our entitlement programs cover everything, and more, on the list above, by our social welfare programs (wic, welfare, ssi...) So now we have the laziest of the lazy with every basic need and comfort paid for without any effort on their part. They live comfortably. They have big T.V.s, cell phones, manicures, nice cars, new cloths...the list goes on and on. And yet they have the audacity to be resentful toward those who work hard and have more than they do. The hard workers, in pursuit of their own happiness, now has a big chunk of their earnings taken, by force, by the government (via taxes, fees, fines etc) so the entitlement programs can continue to be funded and support the lazy.

Not only are the lazy resentful of the “rich”, the President actually encourages this sentiment of resentment in his, seemingly daily, media addresses. “Pay your fair share”.... How does HE determine what a person's fair share is? If I earn it, it's mine. THAT'S fair. If you earn it it's yours. THAT'S FAIR. Nobody else has a right to it... taking it from me is, in itself, UNFAIR (and it's also stealing, since when is stealing “fair”.) At some point the tables got turned and now it's “fair” for the lazy to expect the hard workers to fund their happiness instead of pursuing it themselves. Why, or why, are they entitled to anything they don't earn themselves? After all, they have just as much right as I do to pursue happiness, but they CHOOSE not to.

That's the beauty of having rights....they're there for the plucking, but you don't have to do it if you don't want to. What's fairer than that?

There are no negative consequences for being lazy anymore. If you exist then you are entitled to have your basic needs, and more, taken care of by those who work hard everyday. We need to figure out a way to instill a “work hard and earn what you deserve” virtue back into society. These days kids think a farm is a place where they take care of animals instead of realizing that farms are what keep us fed. They think food magically appears on a plate in front of them without any real effort by anyone to make that meal possible. I've said it before, but I'll say it again....there is a direct connection between not having enough to eat, or at least the possibility of not getting enough to eat (hunger), and motivation to work and earn for yourself and your family. As long as we keep taking that possibility off the table (--no pun intended-- ie: feeding people for “free” ), the motivation to work hard, among the lazy, will never happen.


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  • Posted by 13 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I just started reading The Five Thousand Year Leap" last night and there's a line in it that says, "I didn't have knowledge of my lack of knowledge." How many do you know just like that?
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 13 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Don't even get me going on inheritance tax! The gov is double dipping into our pockets and gives it, shares OUR WEALTH with the freeloading looters! Kathy is correct; we had best stand up and fight to be heard, because our rights are going up in a funeral pyre.
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  • Posted by daveamee 13 years, 3 months ago
    Just watched Part 2 with my 11 and 13 year old and they completely understood the parallels with what's happening now. It's really pretty scary. I read the book for the first time about 20 years ago and usually reread it every year or so. I thought it was frightening back then and it's terrifying now.

    When I was in the Navy back in the 90's, we went through the Clinton demoralization and I didn't think it could get any worse. Then Bush and the Homeland Security folks started taking rights away. I didn't think it could get much worse. "Surely people will wake up", I thought. Obama makes them look like amateurs. We may be too far gone to pull it back.

    My son asked me when the movie ended if we could just quit and move to the Gulch. If only one really existed, we'd be on our way!
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  • Posted by khalling 13 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    they are unhappy in their non productivity. however, they are not enlightened enough to get it or if they get it, care
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  • Posted by Brian420 13 years, 3 months ago
    Why is it that some of my neighbors, some I've grown up with, only want to play cards, go house-to-house, get drunk and sometimes fight? The thing of it is, they get gov't check(s) and I work for a living!
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  • Posted by for_no_other 13 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    More than just like it, not to nitpick, but exactly like it. I can remember reading the section referring to no new ideas, nothing is invented very shortly after Obama's 'you didn't build that' speech. We view AS as an eye opening, 'someone gets me' masterpiece. It seems the current worldwide government actually uses AS as a playbook. The similarities are eerie.
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  • Posted by 13 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    All of my priorities boil down to feeding my family...and my mind...not much room for reduction.
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  • Posted by Excalibur 13 years, 3 months ago
    I agree with the comment "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." That's is a classic line. But humans have always wanted something for nothing. Hence the oldest conscription being slavery which is the ultimate something for nothing.
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  • Posted by 13 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Okay I squeezed it in! I cracked up at the rainbow bins on the street and these people who are such push overs...I can't believe it! They'll do and believe anything...I'm embarrassed for them. And I can't believe that baby didn't plop head first outta that hippie sling.
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  • Posted by 13 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No...haven't had time yet....catching up on eBay and then I have to run out for a bit and then walk..make dinner.....I NEED MORE HOURS IN MY DAY!
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