As our country begins to take a much more serious look at entitlement programs such as universal healthcare, wouldn't it be wise to assess the success of those programs currently in place. I believe that there is a fundamental flaw in our government's approach to helping those in need and I learned this lesson from a peculiar source as described in this excerpt from my new book, "Freedom Ain't Free!"
The Squirrels of Entitlement
"It was after a long morning of repairing roofs in 100 degree weather, and I was ready for a huge Mexican food lunch. Something about working in the heat always makes me crave salsa. So, I pulled into the drive-through and gave my order over the speakers system to a young man whose broken English left me wondering if I would get what I actually ordered. I wasn't that concerned however, because all Mexican food is comprised of five primary ingredients anyway. I would get what I ordered in some form or another. Little did I know that as I pulled around the corner and took my place behind the two automobiles in line in front of me that my understanding of life was about to change forever.
At first, there was nothing remarkable about this particular drive-through. However, as I put my car in park and began to "hurry up and wait" for my food, I noticed that all of the people in the cars in front of me were looking out of their passenger side windows. My attention was immediately drawn to the strangest site that I had ever seen. What was this wonder to behold? What curiosity had drawn the attention of all these hungry travelers? Squirrels! That's right, I said squirrels! At least I thought they were squirrels. Up until that moment, every other squirrel that I had ever seen was always about the business of collecting food. In fact, I would say that squirrels are typically one of the busiest creatures on the planet; but not these squirrels. These squirrels were just sitting there. I could hardly tell if they were alive or dead. Even more shocking was that these were the fattest squirrels that I had ever seen, in that each one had a double or triple chin and a very large belly. They weren't on all four legs either. Instead, they were sitting on their backsides almost as if they were in lazy boy recliners watching television. I wondered if there was such a thing as pig squirrels that I was not aware of. These creatures were so fat that they reminded me of my old Cuban friend Alfredo who, after a good meal of black beans, rice and carne asada, would sit back in his chair, pull his shirt up over the rim of his large belly, and rub it with his hand exclaiming, "ay mi panzonito!"
I was so taken aback by these fat little pig squirrels that it caused me to sit and ponder what circumstances would have created such a site. How did they get so fat? What did they eat that would make them so large? Is there a Slim-Fast for pig squirrels? Suddenly, to my great astonishment, those little pig squirrels came to life; dragging their bellies underneath them as they scrambled all around the curbside picking up small pieces of some type of food. They fought each other ferociously for each morsel of food like two sumo wrestlers over the last piece of Kung Pao Chicken. Then, just as quickly as they came to life, they returned to their lazy boy recliners and awaited the next distribution of food. As the car in front of me pulled away, and I pulled up to the drive through window, I realized what the squirrels were eating. French fries! It was French fries that had been tossed out of the window of the car in front of me after the passengers received their food. That's when the mystery of the taco stand pig squirrels was finally revealed to me. It was simple; the patrons of this taco stand felt sorry for those little squirrels and tossed them food as they drove by.
Now I'm sure that those taco stand patrons had the best of intentions as they tossed their food to those little squirrels, but did they understand the true ramifications of their actions? How could they know that the squirrels would trade their instinct to gather food for a lazy boy recliner and free French fries? Those customers just wanted to be nice and to feel as though they were making a difference. But what would happen to those squirrels if the taco stand went out of business or even worse, the taco stand owners realize that French fries don't belong on a Mexican food menu?
Unfortunately, human beings are no different than these pig squirrels. Given the choice between work and handouts, people will usually opt for the latter. This is why any entitlement program must focus on maintaining a work ethic. Many of today's entitlement programs do just the opposite, and they perpetuate the fat pig squirrel syndrome. Although the "war on poverty" was probably well intentioned, it is nothing more than a handful of French fries to a bunch of hungry creatures. Welfare is a war against self sufficiency and independence. It robs good hard working people of their dignity and self worth.
There is one simple change in philosophy that would change our welfare program from a complete failure into the safety net that it was supposed to be. That is the idea that nothing comes for free. Until this simple change in philosophy occurs the welfare program will never be a war against anything but success. If you want money from the government, then you need to provide something in return for that money. Maybe it's just picking up trash on the streets, but some effort must be required, and that effort should benefit the community in some way."
This lesson of the pig squirrels applies to every program our government tries to implement, which is why we usually end up perpetuating the problem we are trying to solve. This is something that many of our founding fathers already knew as indicated in this quote from Benjamin Franklin. "I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." So now the only question is, will we learn from the mistakes of the past, or will we just continue to throw money at the problem?
Jay Mcfarland can be heard on Ernie and Jay Mid-days, Monday - Friday from 10:00AM - 2:00PM on NewsRadio 1080 KRLD. Email comments to ernieandjay@cbs.com or visit krld.com. The book, "Freedom Ain't Free!" is available now at www.jaymcfarland.com.
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