Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN), whose track record is replete with antisemitism and contempt for America’s founding principles, has proposed providing adults with “guaranteed income” in the form of monthly checks up to $1,200. But if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that people don’t quickly head off to work when they’re being given free money.
No doubt, personal health concerns are steering away some from leaving their homes, contributing to the country’s vast staffing challenge facing, especially, small businesses and hospitality-industry enterprises, like hotels and restaurants. At the same time, anyone with even the slightest grasp of human nature—namely our tendency to weigh incentives and disincentives—shouldn’t be at all surprised that an unemployed person receiving just as much income, if not more, than they were previously, isn’t likely to readily look for a job.
The unfortunate truth is that the willingness to seek gainful employment is even more unlikely today in 21st-century America. Modern technology delivers essentially everything right into our hands—entertainment and food and even friends and family. In other words, there’s hardly any pressing need to get off the couch for more than a few minutes.
The irony here is that Representative Omar—along with her progressive ilk in academia and Silicon Valley alike—is arguing that guaranteed income does not disincentivize people from looking for work. Why is that ironic? Because it’s a sweeping reversal. The left, influenced by Marxism via European socialism, has long asserted that “leisure” is the pinnacle of life. Because, after all, “work” is nothing more than a “power structure” contrived by the bourgeoise, and one from which the common man must free himself.
For many of us, we didn’t need the pandemic to grasp the degrading effects of guaranteed income, that is on those who otherwise are able to work. But for people who aren’t convinced, it’s worth considering what is perhaps the most universal story of all time.
In the Garden of Eden, all of Adam and Eve’s needs were satisfied. Without care or cultivation, the trees yielded an endless supply of fruit, such that the world’s first couple didn’t need to expend an ounce of effort. Eve, eventually turned to what had in turn become the most interesting thing in the Garden: the serpent. Monotony and an existence devoid of genuine work and purpose led to a loss of human communication, and, ultimately, exile.
Only once Adam and Eve were forced to work, to deal with thorns and thistles, did they innovate their way to sustenance and, indeed, meaning. Importantly, it was then after they discovered a productive living that they had children. Although popular lore suggests that Adam and Eve were cursed with thorns and painful labor, respectively, the Bible actually never refers to these burdens as a “curse.” The Book of Genesis is a beautiful and simple statement about the facts of life. Productive work leads to productive lives, which leads to posterity, the only vehicle for ensuring human progress. This is an inspiration, not a curse.
Strikingly, a number of modern political leaders, including the Chancellor of Germany, the President of the French Republic, and the Prime Minister of England, have been childless. Still, though many European Union birthrates are close to negative or zero, constituent nations are toying around with the prospect of guaranteed income. However, it should be clear that when the state provides too much, one no longer feels the need to provide for others—and the ultimate form of providing is having and caring for children.
Representative Omar and other advocates of guaranteed income harbor a frightening lack of respect for their fellow human beings as well as a callous disregard for the sweeping horizon of the human spirit. Their prescription of pay without work is bad for the economy and for the United States. As proven from time immemorial, it’s ruinous for innovation, families and moral progress.
Supporters of guaranteed income, in typical Marxist fashion, view work as merely an unfortunate requirement to ensure man’s continued subsistence. On the other hand, the Bible, especially the story of the Garden of Eden, underscores that labor is part of man’s essence. A person who plants and cares for trees anticipates that there will not only be a next generation, but one that will strive to build a world that is better and more just.
Michael Eisenberg is Co-founder and Partner at early-stage venture capital fund Aleph, and author of the forthcoming book, The Tree of Life and Prosperity (Wicked Son, August 24).
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