Posted by
Andrews on Monday, May 07, 2012 8:49:07 PM
I just saw one of those news trailers that try to get you interested in the lead story. Tonight's topic? Abuse of Maryland's free cell phone program. Imagine that!
To be fair, I have not yet seen the story, so I don't know what the particular abuse is, though one clip showed someone saying she had six in her purse. My guess is, this program, which I always found a waste of money anyway ("
We Have Won the "War on Poverty"") is being abused by individuals who obtain multiple phones, likely when they don't even need them.
What amuses me more, though, is that no one finds the whole program laughable. When we are complaining about massive deficits, why are we spending money to give away phones? The left pretends that without welfare people would be starving in the streets, but the truth is, our welfare goes for air conditioning, prepackaged food, gas for cars, cable bills, cell phones and expensive clothing. In short, we don't have poverty, we have relative poverty, and were welfare to end, we would not have people dying in the streets, we would have people who would have slightly less than they do now.
But somehow no one seems to grasp that. Even after being confronted with absurdities such as the "digital divide" or free cell phones, they still believe we are living in a mediocre Steinbeck novel, when, instead, we are simply providing individuals with an excuse not to work, and giving others additional income. We are far from preventing starvation, we are doing nothing more than redistributing wealth.