May 13, 2010
Personal Responsibility, Part 2
I get letters..... I was listening to your radio program today, and heard the call from the man whose daughter was receiving support from the government because she was an unwed mother whose convict boyfriend wouldn't get a job.  You were frustrated that your taxes were helping to support her bad decisions (especially since she was living with her parents!). I, too, share your frustration.  I am a 29-year old married woman who is going to have her first child in 6 months.  My husband and I each struggled to put ourselves through college, have both held jobs since our mid-teens, waited to get married until we could afford to, and have saved my entire income since we got married so we could afford to me to quit my job once we got pregnant. We have worked very hard to make all of these goals possible.  Once we are living solely on his income, it will continue to be a struggle for us to make ends meet.  We will have to stick to a tight budget that doesn't include toys or even cell phones.  This is why I am disgusted at the way our government doles out money to enable less conscientious Americans (or illegal non-Americans) to live irresponsible lives.  I run into people all the time who are benefiting from this injustice.  There is a woman in my church who got pregnant out of wedlock and subsequent to her marriage has had five children (none of which she could afford) with a husband she just kicked out of her home.  She has been going to school for the past several years (paid for entirely by the government), and Is living in government housing paid for mostly by the government. No one I know looks on this as a problem, because she has such a "hard life."  Her life, however, is a result of the poor choices she has made, and I resent having to pay for those choices.  If our government continues along this track, we will have more and more people taking advantage of the "free handouts," and fewer and fewer of us who are paying for those handouts.  We will bankrupt not only our economy, but also our souls, because we are not teaching the next generation to take personal responsibility for their choices. I'm keeping the name of my correspondent private in order to protect her and her family from irresponsible backlashing.

Posted by Staff at 12:59 AM