Responses to my letters to the editor reveal how much dependence and trust in an intrusive government is ingrained in our psyche. Without a shred of evidence, writers claim I advocate for a country with no government or regulation, and where people fend for themselves and die in the streets.
The only people dying in the streets are victims of thugs, murderers and drunk drivers. They are not victims of the lack of laws to promote the general welfare or inadequate health care.
Liberty and freedom matter little where the priority is the sustenance of equal outcomes for all at any cost. We measure the success of welfare programs by the number of people who are added, not by how many drop out and become self-reliant. Before there was a welfare state, a free and self-reliant populace helped, supported and comforted one another without government coercion.
Progressives’ view of man is that he is basically evil, an individualist who must be prodded and compelled to do what in their minds is proper and will achieve the greater good. Liberals insist that without government beneficence, regulation and control there would be poverty, sickness, chaos, mayhem and slaughter.
Henry Ford warned that “any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian.”
Ed Konecnik
Flushing
