Hollow Praise

It is common almost to the point of inevitability, that when one makes known his opposition to one welfare program or another, that some variant of, "What about the poor?" will surface. I have noted often enough here that the philosophical basis of such an objection is altruism, be it held explicitly in the other person's mind on making such an objection or, more often than not, held implicitly and confused with simple benevolence towards one's fellow man.

The point is, there is often a genuine (i.e., non-altruistic) concern for one's fellow man combined with an understandable lack of imagination at play. The state has handled things like education for so long that most people can't imagine it being handled in any other way, for example.

Fortunately, with the Obama Administration at the helm, it is quickly becoming apparent that, oftentimes, the "goods" and "services" "provided" by the state through looting are often worse than nothing at all.

For example, consider this example of public "education:"

I would laugh out loud at any adult who freely praised Barack Obama in this way or for his "accomplishments" (let alone both), but this is beyond a travesty. These kids -- because they are clearly not being educated -- have no basis for forming a judgment one way or the other about the President, but they are being taught to sing that he is a great man. This is being done using money -- and irreplaceable formative time from the lives of these children -- money and time that was supposed to be spent on them learning how to think (rather than what to say).

Both were stolen in the first place. The money was taken from productive Americans through taxation and inflation, and the time by means of this "public 'option'" for education, combined with compulsory education laws. How many of the parents here, thanks to this kind of "assistance," could afford the time or money to give or pay for an actual education instead of this?

This may be the kind of empty praise our collectivist President deserves, but children deserve much better than to be used to deliver it. It's high time to start talking in moral and practical terms about how else besides governmental theft and compulsion we can accomplish such important tasks as educating the young.

-- CAV