From Uncle Monte...

For your consideration:

Once upon a time, on an acreage far, far away lived a kind and benevolent man named Morgue.

Sharing the acreage (laughingly called Lee's Last Resort (LLR)) with Morgue were his beautiful wife, Lee, and a large population of birds. LLR was covered in oak trees, which made good nesting grounds for the birds. There were 30 or 40 quail and about the same number of other birds of maybe 10 different species.

Being benevolent, Morgue began feeding the birds by spreading seed on the ground for them. Every morning the birds would come down from the trees and grass and feed on the seed Morgue had spread for them.

The birds no longer had a need to forage and the population grew. After a few generations (a generation is one year in the bird kingdom) the birds started to lose the ability to forage, they became dependent on Morgue's largesse.

Morgue noticed that the birds had developed a sense of entitlement; they were entitled to the seed provided by Morgue. If he were a little late in spreading seed in the morning, some would scold him. One particular species, which Morgue called rusty birds because of their rust colored cap, became so bold that they would eat out of his hand. If they found he had no seed in his hand, they would become very insistent, virtually yelling at him.

The bird population stabilized and they all lived happily ever after.

The moral of this story:

Whose fault was it that the birds became dependent on Morgue for their livelihood and that they lost their ability to support themselves by foraging?

Was it the birds themselves who had merely discovered a new way to support themselves? I don't think so. They had been conditioned over several generations to accept this new livelihood as their right.

Was it Morgue whose benevolence had caused the whole thing? I think so. Although Morgue probably didn't set out to make the birds his dependents, the result was predictable if he had only thought about consequences.

The analog of this story in human society is easy enough to see; LLR is a microcosm of America's society today. Starting with the New Deal and continuing through the Great Society to this date, the federal government has been providing the livelihood for a large segment of our population. Is it surprising that, after several generations, those receiving this largesse have become dependent on the government? Is it surprising that those people have come to feel entitled to the largesse? I think not.

Should we blame the third generation resident in subsidized housing in Chicago or the third generation welfare recipient in Washington for their dependency? I think not.

The blame rests on the statists who have owned this country since the Great Depression. I think most of them are motivated by feelings of charity much like Morgue was initially. I suspect, though, that some of them are motivated by a desire for power, for control over others. It's those power seekers who have been in control of the government for decades.

It shouldn't be surprising, then, that the dependent population has grown to the point where they can swing elections to those who promise to continue and even increase the largesse of the federal government. Let's not make the mistake of blaming the dependent population, though. The blame rests with the power seekers and their allies.