E-Newsletter No. 53 ______ May 2018

Mitt Romney once suggested that each person “should take personal responsibility” for their own life. This includes assessing the costs and the benefits of the various decisions that you make each day. Should I make my own cup of coffee this morning, or should I buy the 99 cent cup of coffee at the local convenience store, or should I drive over and buy the $4.59 cup of latte at the coffee shop?

But it’s not all about dollar and cents. Sometimes a decision might entail assessing an “intangible consideration” that only you can determine for yourself. Should I sleep in, or should I study for tomorrow’s exam? Should I invest my time in this activity, or that? Should I go back to school so that I can work towards getting into a field that sparks my interest, or should I simply go to my minimum wage job and hope the government can force my employer to pay me $15 per hour?

Here is a short list of the costs of employment – – the cost of transportation to and from your employer; the time value of your time spent going to and from your employer; the “lost opportunity cost” of the time you spend at your employer versus the time you could be spending doing something you might prefer doing.

Here is a short list of the benefits of employment – – the wages/compensation that you earn; the good feeling that arises from making a positive contribution (to your employer, or to your customers, or to society); the good feeling associated with the Pride of your accomplishments; an intangible value and sense of well-being associated with becoming self-reliant.

Here is a short list of the costs of welfare – – the dollar cost to society to provide assistance to those individuals / families in need (which could very well be appropriate in certain situations, and in certain other instances, maybe not); the “intangible cost” associated with the loss of self-esteem that arises from a feeling of dependency (but unfortunately, this intangible cost has been decreasing in our country over the course of the past 50 years or so, due to the growing sense of entitlement among our country’s citizens).

Here is a short list of the benefits of welfare – – the dollars received from society (as opposed to wages/compensation earned); the “opportunity benefit” of avoiding the costs of employment (see the list of costs above); the time-value-benefit of the extra time available to yourself.

It has been said that “Our country needs a steady in-flow of immigrants, because most Americans would never do those types of jobs.” What ??? Where did that line of thinking ever come from? Well, to a large degree it comes from the trends of what has been happening in our country over the course of the past 50 years or so. Unfortunately, the federal government’s welfare programs have had a significant effect on the cost/benefit assessment of the various factors listed above.

In a Socialistic society, people begin to believe that they are entitled to the generous benefits available from the government. But in a self-reliant society, people understand that they are responsible for their own life decisions. Frederick Douglas once observed, “People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get”. That was certainly true in the past, but then Big Government Socialists began giving away welfare benefits for “free”.

US Debt Clock – – April 1st – $64,468 per citizen / May 1st – $64,606