There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Birthplave of Independent Conservatism

America is becoming a nation whose populace is dependent on government entitlements in ever increasing numbers. The percentage of Americans that earn their income through work is declining. This is a sure recipe for the eventual collapse of our {semi} capitalist economic and social structure. The very structures that built this nation and made it the greatest and most prosperous the world has ever known.

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" was written by C. Jeffery Small. He does an excellent job of confronting the issue of entitlemnts, the ethics which they breed, the subsequent erosion of the work ethic, and the ultimate cost to society.

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." — Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

When Heinlein wrote these words, he was simply referring to the obvious fact that you cannot get something for nothing. Everything consumed must first be produced and everything bought must be paid for. For previous generations, this was a common-sense observation with which all reasonable people agreed. However, these days, that is far from the case, and whether the adage is applicable or not depends upon just exactly what type of person you happen to be.

You really cannot blame the citizens in our entitlement culture who think that they can have their lunch and eat it too. After all, look at the example that their legislators are setting as they coast along on their own free-lunch wagon, creating whatever programs they desire, and then printing paper dollars out of thin air to back them up, with no foreseeable source of revenue in sight — and all the while ignoring the looming debt, the unsustainable deficits, the unresponsive economy, and the rising outcry of protest from the remaining minority of citizens who do understand that there is indeed no free lunch and that the coming catastrophe is going to ultimately be borne on the backs of their productivity.

It's enough to make a grown person shrug.

Read the rest of the article.

C. Jeffery Small blogs at Small Thoughts for a Complex World.

Artwork: Photobucket

Cross posted to Rational Nation USA