On July 3rd, 2013: I posted
this on Facebook (and these series of questions were asked on a blog by a
well-known author) so we can discuss due to the importance of what we are
facing in America today: Why do some of the best entitlement benefits go to our
leaders—the President of the United States, our Congressional leaders, and
other government workers? Once a President or congressman is elected, we the
taxpayers take care of them for life. If they are qualified to be our leaders,
why can’t they take care of themselves?
My sister & fellow
author Angelia Vernon Menchan responded that they can but one of the reasons
those jobs are so attractive is because it has been written and decided they
didn't have to. I loved her response so much, that I asked her to elaborate for
this post.
Angelia: My answer was that
politicians could take care of themselves but the perks of being cared for, for
the rest of their lives made politics very attractive. Not all are attracted
for those reasons but the perks are undeniable. Are they entitled to them,
forever? Or do we as voters, taxpayers and citizens have a right to protest and
vote these perks away? I feel we do have the right but it is not an undertaking
that would be without consequences for all. Does doing away with high level
perks trickle down to us and even more losses are incurred. For instance would
government workers want to forego retirement or not have a percentage of the
thrift savings plans go unmatched? Do we care enough about the overall country
to make these changes for the coming generations?
Also we enjoy capitalism
and to a great extent that has led to the bankruptcy of our county while many
private businesses and CEOs reap millions, even billions. Do we regulate those
entities to change that thus changing our culture?
A larger question is as
Christians how political should we be if we know we must be in the world but
not of the world?
Tremayne: If the truth be
told, it’s almost like saying there are rules for a group of people, and there
are rules for another group. One thing that comes to mind is the credit card
companies (they have rules that we don’t). I’m going to correlate that to the
parable of unforgiveness at the end of Matthew 18. A man owed a king a huge
amount of money, and the king forgave him. Now the man had someone under him
who owed a lot less than what was owed to the king, and the man opted not to
forgive him. Now the credit card companies today are no different. They asked
for a bailout and they got it, now when we want forgiveness, they closed down
our credit, raised our interest rates and demand that we pay it. Sounds like to
me, the credit card companies can’t take care of themselves.
One of the tragedies we’re
facing today is that we feel that the world owes us a living. And when we don’t
get our way, we turn to revolting and civil disobedience. Is this all because
we feel entitled? YES!
I add to Angelia’s
questions: what are we going to do about it? Complain and continue to allow us
taxpayers to take care of them while we are only a day short of bankruptcy? Do we
feel entitled or are we going to do whatever we can to make our dreams come
true?
No comments:
Post a Comment