December 12, 2012
There is nothing here that deprives anybody of their current benefits. It is therefore not cruel or heartless and should not instigate riots. Only the psychological (not monetary) cost of peonage increases. No doubt, some will remain on the dole regardless of discomfort.
But restoring humiliation as the price for government handouts will be difficult. In today’s world everybody except hatemongers must be shielded from any ego damage. Reversing vassalage requires making people feel bad psychologically”demeaned, stigmatized, and humiliated”and the One Commandment of today’s deeply perverse moral cosmology is Thou Shalt Not Deflate Thy Neighbor’s Ego.
In the past, independence rather than servility was prized. Occasional handouts were necessary but viewed as emergency measures to be quickly ended lest the habit of helplessness take root. Aid was to be given but made as distasteful as possible (e.g., recipients would split logs at the town’s woodpile). The medical parallel would be paregoric, an opium-based stomach medicine purposely formulated to be foul-tasting so as to prevent addiction.
By contrast, today’s welfare philosophy might be described as making the recipient as comfortable as possible while government fixes the lingering recession, terrible schools, racism and discrimination, structural economic shifts, and whatever else can be used to explain why youngsters must be fed by Uncle Sam rather than their parents. Mom’s inability to make lunch is not her fault, so why should junior suffer?
Romney was excoriated when mentioning that racist phrase, “food stamps.” He implied that this benefit was illegitimate, a sign of personal moral failing. He was therefore showing contempt for millions who, through no fault of their own, relied on government generosity.
Removing the stigma from being on the dole parallels the trend toward normalizing other once condemned behaviors: homosexuality, out-of-wedlock childbirth, guilt-free promiscuity (the “hook-up” culture), piling on debt that cannot be repaid, and stigma-free personal bankruptcy.
In the name of making people feel normal about what was once deplorable servility, the United States is not only sinking deeper into national debt but also banishing a key building block of civil society. Perhaps it is time to bring back some scarlet letters.
