Parallel Universe?

I have come to the conclusion that the American Society in 2010 is traveling down a road of self-destruction. Mostly because of a lack of desire to work. That's right, I believe that as a society we are no longer willing to perform physical work. In many cases we're not even willing to engage in mentally challenging work.

What's my evidence you ask? Mostly the 100 employees I've hired, fired and seen walk off the job over the past five years. Added to that the countless employees prior to those five years that I witnessed in many different work environments.

Here's where this gets real scary. For many of these people, the major problems won't be felt immediately. You see, many of them fall back on Mom and Dad or Grandparents. Once they infiltrate the family home they start sucking the finances and life out of the parents who've worked years to attain a certain level of comfort. These parents and/or grandparents are living off of Social Security and possibly some pension or retirement savings. At some point, that money is going to run out, or the parents/grandparents are going to die. At that point, the gravy train ends and these leeches will realize the results of their lazy ways.

So what's the parallel universe issue? If you were raised to be a hard-working productive member of society who helps his fellow man, you have difficulty imagining anyone being so lazy they'd just quit working with no plan and start living off of their family and government handouts. There are people like this who've been raised in "the system" and who now have become experts at living in the system. Somehow they get by and eat, drive cars and watch cable television. They have cell phones. Meanwhile, you're struggling to make sure your bills are paid and you'd take the last penny from your savings to ensure no blemishes on your credit report.

Another example of parallel universe; every state that institutes a lottery sells the idea to the voters of that state (who eventually approve it) on the idea that it'll add millions to the state education funds. Then, years after the lottery is in full swing, state education administrators claim they don't have enough money. We've spent gobs of money on public education, yet everyone still claims we're behind the rest of the world in education.

Need another example of parallel universe? Just a few years ago our government officials were warning Americans that we were living on too much credit, that Americans weren't saving enough money. All the while our government was spending us into oblivion and all that spending was borrowed money. Yep, we lowly serfs were borrowing too much, but it somehow was okay for the federal government to do just that.

Aren't We All Compassionate?

A recent back and forth on Facebook got me to thinking about how ugly political arguments have become. I was just as guilty as the other guy.

The argument typically has one side saying the other doesn't care about the less-fortunate. The accused says the accuser is just sympathetic to a bunch of freeloaders. And the argument goes downhill from there. The truth is both sides care about the less-fortunate.

The error in the argument is that "less-fortunate" is a subjective term and therefore, the definition changes from person to person. Is a person capable of working, but unwilling to take some jobs "less-fortunate?" My opinion of "less-fortunate" was always someone incapable of doing at least as well as me for reasons outside of their control, usually a mental or physical disability or sudden tragedy. Whether or not this is an accurate statement of "less-fortunate" is debatable.

Today many people consider anyone out of work to be "less-fortunate." Part of the reason I don't like that definition is that I don't have much more to offer this world but my labor and love. If I choose not to work and others suddenly consider me "less-fortunate" I may allow myself to fall into a lazy attitude and then all I have to offer the world is love. If I become a burden on society and continue to take without giving back, I fear that my love for the world would soon wane. In such a case, I would no longer have anything to offer this world. How sad that would be.

So, the next time someone wants to get into a political argument, maybe definitions should be clarified before the debate begins. This allows both sides to focus on the issues and eliminate the ugly name-calling.