Young people today seem to grow up feeling like the world owes them whatever they want. Unlike "The Greatest Generation" and a couple of generations after them, today's young people, the so-called "Millenials" seem to have no real interest in hard work and sacrifice but think the government should guarantee them an income, health care and an education.
I blame the liberalism that has taken over our education system as much as anything else. A lack of instilled values and a missing work ethic are also to blame but again - that's probably due to being raised in an ever growing liberal society.
Jesse Myerson of Rolling Stone Magazine published an article on Friday entitled "Five Economic Reforms Millenials Should Be Fighting For." It gives one an idea of just how deeply Millenials are immersed in the "Gimmee" mindset since he calls himself a Millenial.
Myerson's first reform would be for the government to guarantee a job and income for everyone. He believes expanding the government by creating jobs in the public sector would be great for everyone. What he doesn't seem to understand is that the more government grows the less freedoms he and other Americans will have.
Second on his list is a guaranteed income for all Americans - even if they don't want to work. His justification for this is as follows: "...as much as unemployment blows, so do jobs. What if people didn't have to work to survive? Enter the jaw-droppingly simple idea of a universal basic income, in which the government would just add a sum sufficient for subsistence to everyone's bank account every month."
In other words - "Gimmee an income so I don't have to actually work to support myself." And it's surprising how many young people feel this way. I wonder how Mr. Myerson plans to pay for this. People who are sponging off the government don't pay taxes to ensure the government has revenue coming in. I suppose it'll be that ever popular liberal idea of taxing those disgusting rich people.
Myerson sums up his plan for a "univeral income" with this sentence: "A universal basic income, combined with a job guarantee and other social programs, could make participation in the labor force truly voluntary, thereby enabling people to get a life."
He wants people to work only if they so desire and if not they should be guaranteed an income from the government so they can do what they want. Yeah - that'll work.
Third in Myerson's communist style plan is for the government to take back land from "wealthy real estate owners, such as the one who owns the building in which he lives. Myerson doesn't believe that individuals can truly "own" land because it belongs to nature. Therefore, in his world, municipal governments should own all the land and buildings thereon so they can make everything and everyone equal, providing equal housing for all.
So let's see... so far he wants a guaranteed job (if he wishes to work), a guaranteed income (even if he doesn't want to work), and guaranteed equal housing also provided by the omnipotent (and apparently uber-wealthy) government. What else do you have in mind, Mr. Myerson?
His next point is to "Make everything owned by everybody." He believes those evil, rich capitalists, the 1 percenters, shouldn't be allowed to own land, real estate, corporations or stock. He believes the government should buy it all up and then distribute it evenly to everyone through his guaranteed income plan.
The only idea he has that might actually make sense is his last point - to put a public bank in every state. According to Mr. Myerson, North Dakota has such a public banking system. I will have to research this but here is what Myerson says about it:
"When North Dakotans pay state taxes, the money gets deposited in the state's bank, which in turn offers cheap loans to farmers, students and businesses. The Bank of North Dakota doesn't make seedy, destined-to-default loans, slice them up inscrutably and sell them on a secondary market. It doesn't play around with incomprehensible derivatives and allow its executives to extract billions of dollars. It just makes loans and works with debtors to pay them off."
That might actually be a good idea to break up the monopoly of Wall Street. Lord knows we could use some reform there. But I'm still a fan of capitalism and hard work. Mr. Myerson has apparently worked for a living - much to his dismay, I suppose - because you don't get to be a writer for Rolling Stone if you haven't produced something they want. But it seems he'd rather quit work, sit back and enjoy a handout from the government rather than continue to actually earn a living. At least, that's what it sounds like from his article.
Myerson closes his article by saying "If that idea – or any of the others described in this piece – sounds good to you, there's a bitter political struggle to be waged. Let's get to work."
Wait... I thought you said you wanted to do away with work? Make up your mind, would ya?
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