I probably don’t have as much sympathy for the homeless and destitute as I should. That’s not easy to admit but it’s true. I was in Wichita, Kansas last winter and a homeless man came up to me on the street. He had on a new insulated coat, new blue jeans and new tennis shoes, all obviously provided to him by a local charity. He was leading a small dog tied to a string and a sign hung around his neck that said, “Homeless, Please help!” He asked me if I could give him a hand because he was broke.
I said, “You’re not broke - you’re even. I’ve got $5000 in credit card debt, a twenty year mortgage, two car payments, a payroll to meet, four to five years of college tuition looming on the horizon and I’ve gotta pay my own health insurance. I’m broke- you don’t owe anybody anything!” By the time I got through with him, the man tried to give me $5 before he wandered off down the street.
Now I’m not totally unfeeling for those in our society that need help, but sometimes I just feel overwhelmed because we are slowly but surely killing the middle class of America. – just a little bit more everyday. We’re taxing and suing and fee-ing and regulating it to death. Currently our President is saying that we should tax the rich even more to provide all these things that we think our government ought to do for us. The wealthy in this country may or may not be paying their fair share but contrary to what some politicians want you to believe, there are too few of them to matter when it comes to paying the bills. The poor can’t pay their share so it mostly falls upon the middle class.
I’m just afraid that in our attempts to provide everything to everybody, to protect everyone from every possible evil, (even our own stupidity) and our desire to always hold someone else responsible for our own troubles, we have found ourselves standing over the golden goose with our foot on her neck and a hatchet raised in our hand ready to strike. We want all our ills cured, all our needs met and all our pet causes justified – RIGHT NOW. We are no longer a country ruled by the majority but by special interest. We are ruled by their threats. Any group with a cause says, “Give us what we want or we’ll talk bad about you and take you to court for years and years where you’ll have to validate parking and spend your weekends looking at some lawyer’s briefs. And it’s all justified because it’s done in the name of “Public Interest.”
One person in Des Moines loses his job or suffers embarrassment because someone discloses his medical records and more regulation is put in place that adds ten dollars to the cost of your next doctor’s visit. Soon these costs get so high that more & more people can’t & won’t pay it, which causes the bills to increase even more for those who can. All done in the name of public interest.
Politicians smooze the elderly and promise them the financial moon at the expense of the next generation’s retirement and financial security. All done in the public interest.
The government provides grant after grant for housing, utility assistance, and workforce training not to mention public education- without any real expectations of improving the lives of those who are receiving the benefits. - All done in the public interest.
NAFTA carried wave after wave of jobs out of the country to escape excessive regulations and high labor costs but the consumer sees no corresponding decrease in the costs of these now foreign goods. All done in the public interest.
New regulations bring new regulations to deal with the problems created by the first set of regulations. This breeds new industries that serve no productive purpose but to deal with the quagmire created by new regulations, - industries that then crave even more regulation as a revenue source. All adding their cost to our everyday bills and all justified in the name of protecting the public interest.
I recently got one of those class action suit form letters from a law firm. If I joined the class action suit, I would receive an $8 discount on a book from the publishing firm that was being sued. In fine print, it was noted that the lawyers were receiving in excess of three million dollars “for protecting the public interest.” I hope that most people realize that these litigation costs aren’t borne by the company being sued or coming out of its executives’ pockets but are simply being passed on to the consumer; whether it’s a book, a pack of cigarettes, a fast food meal, a trip to the doctor or an insurance premium.
With all these groups and politicians out there “protecting the public interest,” I wonder why so many people are feeling less secure today than ever. I’d like the opportunity to protect my own interest for a while – from the trial lawyers, bureaucrats, disloyal industrialists and political demagogues. If not, my sympathy for the homeless will likely increase over the next few years as I may soon be one of them.
W. McCully
