Personal responsibility: Yours or the Governments?
Yesterdays blog seemed to stimulate some controversy. It seems that my liberal friends think that I am lucky and have an “I got mine you get yours mentality”. The blog was about personal responsibility. It was about making decisions in our own lives that place us where we are today. I used healthcare reform as an example of personal decision making. I was described as lucky, interesting.
Continuing with the premise that we are responsible for where we are in life because of the decisions we make. I have no debt, no credit cards, I have a savings account that will pay my bills for a year, I drive a 10 year old car, paid for. I pay cash for things I buy by saving for them, I chose a career that would provide me a job security, a pension and medical benefits for the rest of my life. My responsibility for others ended when my wife of 40 years past away this year. I am thankful for the decisions I made to secure health insurance and savings to cover 3 years of cancer treatment and her funeral, I am thankful that I had a savings account that allowed me to pay the share of costs incurred over 3 years and not go bankrupt. This was not luck, this was because I made a decision in my life to prepare for these things.
The reality is that most people in America will not delay gratification. They will use credit to buy the new car, TV or whatever. They live in the moment and do not prepare for the future. There are other people who use drugs, participate in criminal activities or are just to lazy to work for anything. Why should I pay for their healthcare or anything else for that matter?
Anyone who buys into revolving credit, adjustable rate mortgages, credit cards is spending their future. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Decisions you make in life will dictate where you will end up.
Why am I against all these noble social programs? It is simple, the debt we are incurring is putting at risk of losing everything I worked and planned for.
Does this sound selfish? I don’t think so. Look to yourself and make your own life better, don’t depend on me, I already raised my children, who by the way, have all the benefits I have because they have taken responsibility for their decisions.
The path this administration and congress is taking will bankrupt this county. I don’t feel that I should lose everything I worked for to provide for somebody’s socialist agenda. To my liberal friends, we are not all entitled to everything everyone else has, your must earn it.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Hi I’m From The Government And I’m Here To Help You!
- Life in America: Personal or Government Responsibility
- HAPPY THANKSGIVING
- Personal Responsibility: Part 3
- Pledge of Allegiance
The Common Man: I am just that, someone who spent 30 plus years working for the government as a mid-level manager and program manager. This forum allows me to have a voice and share my concerns. I have been a voting member of the silent majority my entire adult life, now however it seems voting is not enough and being silent is a bad idea. This forum is an attempt to move the conversation from the kitchen table, friends and families to people who would also like to voice opinions and Participate in a civil debate.
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Rod
I’m sorry, but you are lucky–plain and simple. My father also chose a career in the military after he was demobilized at the end of WWII and given a ticket home to Pittsburgh. He had a good look around and decided he liked the Army Air Forces after all. Three wars and 31 years later my dad retired from the Air Force. He raised five children on an enlisted man’s pay. My mother was a registered nurse and worked the graveyard shift to make ends meet. Dad died of a terminal lung disease in 1994. He received incredible care at Walter Reed and Womack Army Medical Center. Fast forward to December 16th, 1998. My 79 year old mother suffered a heart attack. It was my birthday. I drove the 400 miles from Washington DC to the intensive care ward at the local hospital. My brother and sisters and I were not concerned about medical bills, because my mother was covered by Tricare. Or so we thought. It turns out that mom and dad had never signed up for Medicare because they were living overseas when they turned 65. Big mistake. Tricare wouldn’t pay because my mother was eligible for Medicare. Medicare wouldn’t pay because she’d never signed up.
My mother’s hospital stay lengthened as she was diagnosed with the same terminal lung disease that killed my father. She was given a year to live. A month after she was discharged from the civilian hospital the bills started rolling in. Tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. We’re a military family, so we don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars stashed away, let alone tens of thousands. When we buried my mother nine months after her initial heart attack, we were broke. We lost my parents home because none of us kids could afford to take on the cost of a second mortgage payment.
Rod, my dad made good choices. My mom made good choices. All of their kids made good choices. But one mistake cost us the home my parents had sunk all their money into. One mistake. It could have been worse. And for a lot of American families it is worse. You have chosen to characterize people without health insurance as lazy and lacking foresight. Sometimes Rod, they’re just unlucky.
Hi Bridig,
Thank you for your comments and sharing some insight into how you have come by your convictions.
There are a few things I would like to clarify and comment on.
The first is really not to important but I would like to state for the record. I am not retired military, I retired as a civilian civil servant.
The second is, I find it interesting that you assign an absolute, to the terms “many and others”. I did not say that all people without healthcare are lazy or lacking foresight.
Thirdly, I am not without several unpleasant experiences with our healthcare system, insurance companies and government healthcare benefits. These experiences have shaped my convictions on this subject.
On the subject of lucky, we clearly will never agree on the definition of this word, but I would like to tell you what I believe. I think what some see as lucky is really preparation and hard work by others that result in a positive outcome. I believe that preparation prepares an individual to take advantage of a situation or opportunity as it presents itself.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines “lucky” as a happing by chance, producing or resulting in good by chance or meeting with unforeseen success. I think many confuse lucky with preparation and hard work.
The fact I was born to the parents I had and was born in this country is certainly good luck no doubt about it. The fact that I have prepared and worked hard to achieve what I have, is not.
I would like to say that I am truly sorry for what you and your family experienced with your healthcare experiences. I understand that people do forget things and make mistakes, all of us do.
I would like to ask you three questions: The first is, since Tricare and Medicare are government run healthcare programs and their policies are the reason for your mothers situation, why would you support the same government providing healthcare to all of us?
The second is, why do you blame the system when it was your parents actions or inaction that resulted in your mother not having healthcare coverage.
Lastly do you really think that allowing the government to dictate that we sign up for healthcare with penalties for not doing so, would prevent someone else from falling in the cracks of the system as your parents did?
We both agree that the system is flawed and needs reform. Where we disagree is that you seem to want a government mandated, government run system and I certainly do not.