[Vision2020] Entitlements, Feeding the Animals, and Ludwig von Mises

[keely emerinemix]

Just brilliant.  Nick, you've done a great service here . . . 

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com


Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:52:13 -0700
From: ngier006 at gmail.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Entitlements, Feeding the Animals, and Ludwig von Mises

Dear Visionaries:
I want to thank Roger for the quote and Ron and Wayne for the good aid in responding.  The Ludwig von Mises reference is explained in the full version attached.  Here are the epigraphs.
“I tell you the truth, when you did it
to one of the least
of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.”
—Matthew 25:40
(New Living Bible)

Jesus' words are full of
resentment against the rich, and the Apostles
are no meeker in this respect. The Rich Man is condemned
 because he is rich, the Beggar praised
because he is poor.
—Ludwig
von MisesVon
Mises, one of the founders of this form of libertarianism, has nothing but
scorn for Christianity, which he calls a religion of hatred and
resentment.  Von Mises also believes that
Christians were the first socialists.  Perhaps von
Mises was aware of the economic communism of early Christianity (Acts 2: 44-45)
and Tertullian’s statement 200 years later: “We Christians hold all things in
common except our wives.”Yours for entitlements forever,  Nick

      ENTITLEMENTS AND FEEDING THE ANIMALS

By Nick Gier

The case was presented to the
court on the theory that the child
 was a member of the animal kingdom and
therefore entitled to
the same protection from abuse that the law gave to animals.—a New York City girl removed from her parents in 1874



Under the headline “Isn’t It Ironic?”
the following statement has been making its rounds on the internet.“The Food Stamp
Program is distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever.
Meanwhile, the National Park Service asks us ‘Please Do Not Feed The Animals.’
This is because the animals may grow dependent on handouts and not learn to
take care of themselves.”

Here is the real reason from Bryce
Canyon National Park: 

“Most animals have very
specific natural diets and therefore specific kinds of digestive bacteria.
Being fed human food causes the wrong type of bacteria to become dominant in
their stomachs. Soon these animals are no longer able to digest their natural
foods.”

While it is illegal to feed
wild animals (exceptions are starving elk during harsh winters), we have a moral
obligation to feed domestic animals. 
When neglected farm animals can’t be taken in by neighbors, who steps in
to feed and care for them? Public officials of course.  

Why is it then that when the
government offers assistance to help people in need, far too many Americans say
that they should just tough it out? Or die, as some in a GOP debate audience
yelled out when the moderator asked Ron Paul: “Should the uninsured be left to
die?”It is really unnatural to
depend on publicly supported health care, fire/police protection, public roads,
public parks, public wildlife agencies, and public education?

In 19th Century America there were no laws
protecting children from abuse, but there were, thanks to English influence,
humane societies.  Finding a 9-year-old
girl suffering from malnutrition and physical injuries, a New York social
worker contacted the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
In 1874 a judge was forced to admit that the girl was indeed a “member of the
animal kingdom,” and that she should be taken from her parents and placed in an
orphanage.

 Some Americans treat their dogs better than they
want the government to treat people who can’t help themselves.  Is it because they believe that the poor and
disabled are somehow wild animals who should fend for themselves? Should we, as
the Victorians did, criminalize poverty and send the reprobates to the Poor
House?

These questions are not rhetorical because Newt Gingrich has
criticized child labor laws, but then turns around and claims that poor
children wouldn’t work even if jobs were offered them. He said that “poor children in poor neighborhoods have
no habit of working and have nobody around them who works.” 

Always correcting the fact-challenged GOP, Charles Blow of The New York Times
replied that “three out of four poor working-aged adults work. Most poor
children live in a household where at least one parent is employed.”

Those on the right spit out the words “entitlement” as if no
one has ever deserved to receive a cent let alone a helping hand.  The sentiment appears to be that everyone
should somehow self insure themselves against the exigencies of poor health,
old age, and unemployment. 

Beginning
with the rule of Otto von Bismarck—under pressure from the fledgling Social
Democrats—Germany established the principle that self-interest is best attained
by assuming collective responsibility for humanity’s most basic needs. 

Many
governments believe that children are so important that they pay mother or
fathers to stay home with their infants in the early months, and then provide a
monthly allowance for all children through their school years. In Finland
parents are paid 80 percent of one salary for 23 weeks, and a child allowance
($140 per month) until age 17.  

The percentage of
food stamp recipients in the 21 states that voted for John McCain is two
percent higher than the 29 states that voted for Obama.  Idaho had the second largest increase of food
stamp users from 2009 to 2010. 

If government
programs do in fact generate unhealthy dependencies, why is it that in 2008 22
red states received more federal funds than they paid in taxes. Only 10 blue
states were in this category.  Texas was
the only red state that sent more money to Uncle Sam than it received, while 16
blue states did.  

Why don’t these GOP
governors send all of this money back to their rich uncle? After all it is
unwise to feed animals who claim to be self-sufficient.

Nick Gier taught
philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.

 

            

 

=======================================================
 List services made available by First Step Internet,
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
               http://www.fsr.net
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
======================================================= 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20120315/ef83f8fb/attachment.html>