There are an awful lot of people, mostly socialists and communists, who have the same attitude as the person who wrote this:
This post was highlighted on X, but it seemed worthwhile to go to the socialist subreddit where he posed the question and read some of the answers the socialists there gave. These seemed to be the sort of standard answers people were giving:
* “I would say it goes back to the early Puritans with ’idle hands are the devil’s work.’ That morphed into hard work will bring success, and that was true I feel thru the 70s. Currently, it has been bastardized into some flex to work away your life to make someone else wealthy. Weird how a system based on greed can end up that way...”
* “They’re brainwashed and mainly uneducated.”
* “Americans don’t. Shills for Capitalism or ignorant folks who’ve been brainwashed and propagandized do. It’s like asking abused people why they stay in abusive relationships. The hyper-normalization of a valorized subservience to the Billionaire bottom line is the punchline of every piece of media and educational loop here. This culture teaches you to be hostile towards anything else.”
* “Because they got scammed into working their life away and don’t want to admit it.”
So, according to these people, if you want to work, you’re basically dumb and brainwashed, while the smart people who aren’t tools of billionaires understand that you really shouldn’t have to work very hard.
However, if these people are so smart (Are they? Are they really?), then you have to wonder why they’re missing the obvious, unspoken thing that always goes with “I don’t want to work,” that all of you reading this are probably thinking about right now.
You see, nobody has to work. There are bums all over the country sleeping in tents and under bridges who don’t have jobs. When people like this say they don’t want to work, what they REALLY MEAN is, “I don’t want to work, but I want THE SAME LIFESTYLE as people who do work, and I want those people to pay for it.”
Going back to the original post, he says the person who doesn’t want to work is called a “leech,” “bum,” and a “loser.” Of course, he is. Bums don’t work, and what else do you call someone who wants everyone else to pay his way other than a leech? There are certainly no winners in life who think like that, so someone who does is a loser.
Other people said he should be homeless. Right. What else should happen to someone who doesn’t want to work or provide anything else to other human beings?
He wants people like me to pay his way? Why? I don’t know him. I don’t care about him. I owe him nothing. He’s not my child. Why would I want a penny of my money to go to him? Because he wants it? So what? I want him to pay his own way. Does he care about that? No? Then why should I care what he wants?
If you want to tell me that’s selfish, no, it’s not. A selfish person isn’t someone who wants to keep more of the money they earn; a selfish person wants what he didn’t earn – and he hasn’t earned any of my money. If he wants to do that, he’d have to work, and let’s be honest: a socialist probably wouldn’t even have the work ethic to do a decent job of raking your yard, so what good are they? That’s one of the many problems with socialists and communists. They want the good life at the expense of people who earn it instead of earning it themselves.
Also, I’m not going to tell anyone to kill themselves because everyone can add something to the world if they live up to their potential, but if your argument is, “The rest of the world owes me a living because I never asked to be born,” that implies that you don’t want to be here and you have no choice about it – but, of course, you do. Don’t kill yourself, but don’t say, “I didn’t ask to be born,” because that’s a whiny child’s line that no adult should ever use.
As the great Thomas Sowell said:
Parasites like this who want to live off of everyone while contributing nothing are worse than useless to our society. In a better world, not only would they not be allowed to vote or get long-term welfare, we’d take away their citizenship and force them to leave the country.
In the way past, these people would starve or sold into slavery to pay their debts which would make them a full time slave to harsh work.
I love the term a slave to billionaires. The billionaires do not need them. The majority of them would still have been rich in the distant past because they work all the time.
Saying I did not ask to be born is no excuse. None of us asked to be born. It does not mean the universe owes you anything. What you do with your life is your choice, especially in this day and age. In the past, you likely had limited choices or no choice at all.
Funny, capitalism has been the path to prosperity for modern humans. Without it, we would still be living in the pre-industrialized age working to just survive. Most of us would not be alive today.
The other issue is most people believe everyone else thinks like they do. A person who sees a homeless person assumes the homeless person does not want to be homeless and just needs some help to get back on track. Who would want to live like that. They cannot fathom that most of the homeless have chosen their life. They want to do drugs or just beg for money because it is easier than getting a real job. People feel sorry for them so they can sit back and do nothing to help themselves.
Several years ago, the city I lived in tried to help the homeless. People could purchase coupons to hand out to the homeless. The coupon was good for a free bus ride to one of many homeless shelters mostly run by charitable groups. My church participated in it. The were provided food, a place to sleep, medical care, and whatever else they needed to transition to the work world. The person had to agree to not do drugs or alcohol and be randomly tested. If they were addicts, they could get a placement in a rehab center. They would be supported as long as they were making progress to become drug and alcohol free.
The program imploded in a few months. The majority of the homeless wanted cash to buy drugs and alcohol. They did not want to go to a shelter where there were rules to be followed to get shelter, food, and real help to overcome their issues.
Some claim that many are homeless because of mental health issues. Many times these issues resulted from drug and alcohol use. As a society, we want people to make their own choices. The problem is the mentally ill are incapable of making sound decisions. Most are a danger to self or others. The only way to get them off the streets is by force. If we really want to help them we need to institutionalize them. There are people who can only function inside an institution. Many can be taught to do some tasks that will help to support them.
I absolutely do not want to support anyone who is able bodied because they do not want to waste their life away working. Working is not wasting your life away. It gives you a purpose for living. I know of many who are in their 70s and 80s who are still working by choice. It give them a reason to get up in the morning and interact with other humans. It also promotes good health.
I have a few health issues including issues with my back, hips and knees. When I wake up, I have to move. After 10 minutes of walking, the stiffness and pain are greatly reduced and I can do the things I enjoy. If I were to just lay around because I was in pain, my joints would deteriorate quickly to the point I would be wheel chair bound. I watched my father do nothing the last 15 years of his life because one day he decided to stop moving. He had a strong heart but within a few years he started developing coronary issues. His doctors told him he needed to take regular walks and make dietary changes. He refused. About 5 years ago, his coronary issues worsened to the point that he would not survive any sort of surgery to correct the issues. His doctors were surprised he lived 5 more years. His heart was barely keeping him alive. He could not move at all.
My grandfather and father-in-law worked until their mid-80s. They both lived a very active lifestyle and were in good health. Then my grandfather suffered a stroke and was gone within 2 years. My father-in-law got leukemia and survived 3 years, 2 more than the doctors gave him. He was fairly active until the last 3 months.
The dems proposed a welfare system when JFK was in office. He refused to endorse it and vowed to veto any such bill that came to his desk. He said welfare makes people lazy and the roles will continuously grow as people realize the government will pay them to to not work.
He was proved right. We have seen this happen after LBJ signed in our current welfare state.
Well, the problem is that we give people like that government benefits for not working. Otherwise, they would have to work or starve to death. The solution is simple, cut off their government benefits. Also, take away their screen devices until they can afford to pay for them. Entertainment time is the competition for work. Frankly, without screens they would be bored to become suicidal and then seek work just for something to do.