By now, I am sure you have read or you have heard about the story of James Robertson, a Detroit, Michigan factory worker whose arduous 21- mile daily roundtrip commute, that he walks, has never missed a day of work. His journey of walking in the rain, sun, snow, and sleet will all be a distant memory. Evan Leedy, a college student, heard the story and began a crowd-funding campaign to help Mr. Robertson buy a car. Right now, the fund stands at $200,000 and counting.
God bless both men.
Empathy Within
On the other end of the spectrum, there are people a lot younger than Mr. Robertson who do not bother getting up and going to work, mostly because they don’t have to.
The selling of victimization must always go hand in hand with the selling of the victimizer. The latter is always the 1%, but the sales pitch is how others are unwittingly accomplices through all of this, and if they can see the light, the entire nation will divvy up all the cash and we'll all live happily ever after.
The new sales pitch- the ‘empathy gap.’
That's right, America, you don't give a damn about the other sexes, the other races, the poor, and those unable to get a slice of the American pie because the deck and mean people are stacked against them.
One proponent of this new guilt trip is Nicholas Kristof. In his recent NY Times editorial, he wrote about the death of a 54-year-old friend, and it serves as something of an indictment, not those who suck up lots of government benefits, but those who dare to question their desire to do more for themselves and for society.
There have been a lot of rebuttals, including a piece in the Economists that points to social security disability insurance as an example of abuse of a system by those we should have more empathy for. Our disability fund is going broke.
Actually, it is on course to run out of money next year. The main reason is the burden of five million people of working age up almost 500% since 1957.
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I have been talking about this phenomenon for years...commonly known as the “crazy check.” Young able-bodied men, who are allowed to say they cannot work, end up living on the taxpayer’s dime.
The spike in young men going on disability began after the rules were changed in 1984.
I think it is time we showed these young men some real empathy and kick them off disability, so the real victims of disability will have access to those funds. If anyone should have any guilt, it is those that abuse all the benefits in this nation and their apologists.
I am tired of hearing how America isn’t caring, isn’t generous, and doesn’t care. Of course, we care and we spring into action, but there is the issue of the best gift of all- individual independence.
Yes, it is despicable that people would milk a system designated to help those with broken bodies, but in the process, they are breaking their own souls.
I have little empathy.
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