The Entitlement Society, Part I

In a chaotic scene at Santa Monica College in California, students were pepper sprayed by police after crashing a board meeting concerning fee increases. Students were chanting that "education should be free." This is just another in a long line of instances which, in aggregate, leads the logical thinker to believe that the very fabric of our society is unraveling. Entire segments of our society are in full-fledged denial, or worse yet, ignorance, of what has fueled the prosperity that has made America the richest nation in the history of the world. Their incredibly myopic worldview seems to be centered around the premise that anything that everyone "should have" should be "free." Of course, this runs contrary to every principle of free enterprise (which is supposedly taught in our public schools). Anyone with even the slightest working knowledge of economics understands the basic principles of supply and demand which drive our capitalist system. It is not an exercise which requires great intellectual ability to grasp. As are most of the beautiful things in this world, it is simple and resides primarily in the realm of common sense. So, why is it that so many in our society cannot seem to grasp this? The answer is disturbing, and I hope I am wrong.

I believe that the answer is a lethal combination of ignorance of our capitalist system and outright rejection of capitalism as an essential instrument of American growth and life. It is far from difficult to imagine that our public education system has failed to properly instruct millions of students (who, make no mistake, are more likely than not very apathetic toward the subject) on the basic tenets of capitalism and the mountain of evidence from our history which goes a long way to provide bona fides. When one considers the unprecedented (save FDR's failed attempts) level of government intrusion into our economy today, it is far from inconceivable that young people would believe that things like education should "be free." Our government has embarked on an unparalleled spending spree which has served to take the burden of participating in the give and take of media of exchange off millions in our system. "Free" schools provide "free" breakfasts and "free" lunches which are followed up by "free" dinners purchased with EBT cards. I could go down a very long road of subsidies and handouts provided by the hard-working taxpayers of this country and distributed through the middle-man known as the federal government in exchange for mindless political fealty. The end result of such activity is undeniable. It is the Entitlement Society, and, left unchecked, it will destroy free society as we know it...