Our founders were keenly aware of the role that independence plays in creating and sustaining a well-ordered society. ?Dependence begets subservi¬ence and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition,? Thomas Jefferson wrote in his 1787 Notes on the State of Virginia. Benjamin Franklin, in a 1766 essay on prices and poverty, said, ?The best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but driving them out of it.?
Their words serve as a good illustration of why we need to do a better job teaching history to our children. Memorizing names and dates is important, but each generation needs to know the reasoning behind mankind?s noblest experiment in liberty and self-rule -- because if they don?t, quite frankly, those very concepts become endangered.
There?s another reason Americans? rising dependency on government matters: The number of people who actually pay for it is going down. According to The Tax Foundation, a record 42.5 million Americans last year paid no federal taxes after deductions and credits.
The question then becomes: Is society heading toward a ?tipping point? at which a majority, dependent on government services yet not charged for them, could press for a vast, unsustainable expansion of government? The Index grew out of concerns by leaders such as Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and others that the answer may very well be yes.
Take Medicare. In 1970, an estimated 20 million individuals were enrolled in the government?s health program for seniors, the Index notes. By 2003, that number had more than doubled, reaching more than 41 mil¬lion. And in less than 10 years, the rate of increase will only accelerate, as 77 million baby boomers begin to retiree.
?Civil society already has yielded substantial ground to the federal public sector,? says William Beach, director of Heritage?s Center for Data Analysis and author of the Index. ?When do we reach what George Will called the triumph of the entitlement state, where the special interests band together to form a majority that votes its short-term desires at the expense of the long-term public good??
Good question. The time to ask it is now -- before we reach that ?tipping point.?