LAND OF THE FREE STUFF

I can't remember who I first heard it from, and I have heard it and said it numerous times: "All it takes is a little hard work and perseverance." Whatever you want to accomplish - whatever you want to honestly earn - that is what is required: hard work and perseverance.

Many now, however, have little to no interest in real accomplishment or really earning anything. Having grown up in the most prosperous nation in history, they have convinced themselves that they are entitled to a certain level of prosperity without hard work and perseverance, and they are voting into power people that are promising to use that power to guarantee that prosperity at the expense of others. This socialist movement is being framed and fawned over as the promise of the "free" - "free" healthcare, "free" college, "free" housing, "free" internet, "free" income, etc.

I put "free" in quotes because we all know that no "entitlement" is really free. Behind every "free entitlement" is someone else working to pay for it. (The government pays for nothing because the government has none of its own money to pay for anything with.) And socialists are okay with that - with profiting off someone else's labor, leveraging tax law against the productive to profit the unproductive. That is nothing more than theft by tyrannical taxation. (The first citizens of this nation fought the Revolutionary War over tyranny and taxes. I wonder if the flames of another civil war are now being stoked from within over those same issues, along with abortion and guns.)

Out of an ingrown sense of entitlement comes the push to enforce entitlement at the expense of others and no expense to oneself. This is nothing more than a push to institutionalize selfishness and covetousness. This is sinful at any financial level, regardless of financial status. To vote into power those that will use their power to take what you want from others, that is to steal with your vote what belongs to others, no less than holding a gun on them to steal from them. To do this is to put into power those that promise to literally turn the gun of the government on those you want to take from, with the threat of arrest and imprisonment for tax evasion.

All of this comes down to people wanting a free living. They want a guaranteed check without the grueling work, and that is exactly what the Green New Deal promises, spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as explained in her FAQ: "Economic security for all that are unable or unwilling to work." (Emphasis added.) If this initiative were to become the law of the land, we would see the eventual end of ingenuity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and this economy. If the land of the free is turned into the land of the free stuff, the land will be destroyed by the ruling and consuming classes, especially once it's proven that heavily taxing the wealthy will not come close to paying for all of the free stuff, and heavy taxes are then levied against lower and lower income brackets. The working class will dissolve under the unbearable financial burden, as well as the loss of will to work in no longer being able to reap to the extent that one sows.

There is nothing morally wrong with receiving free gifts, but it is morally wrong to expect and demand free entitlements - to expect and demand reward without work on the basis that you deserve it because you exist. When God first brought a human into existence, even in perfect paradise He established the work/reward ethic and upheld it in the curse of the fall. When He first placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, His creation was raw and wild, to be cultivated by Adam. And in the aftermath of the first sin by Adam, God assured Adam that, though by the sweat of his brow in battling thorns and thistles, he would still earn his bread. (See Genesis 1-3.)

This work/reward ethic has always been God's design and decree for life on this earth, to be first exemplified by His people, even while living under grace. This is to be such a strong ethic that we are to enforce it to the point of making the lazy go hungry:

...make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, 12 so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. (1 Thessalonians 4:11–12*)

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; 9 not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. 10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. 11 For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. 13 But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. (2 Thessalonians 3:6–13)

Hard work will always make us tired, but we should never get tired of doing good work for the good that comes from it. And while we have the privilege of living in the land of the free, we must insist that there be no place for freeloaders. If they gain power, the land of the free stuff will spin into a downward spiral to the land of no stuff, as prosperity diminishes into poverty. Think that sounds melodramatic? Look at Venezuela.

"This world is not my home. I'm just a-passing through." (Jim Reeves) However, while we are in this world, we are to seek what is good for our neighbor in love for our neighbor, which should include being free but not a guarantee of things being free. With all of their imperfections, the Founding Fathers of this nation wanted this to be a land where people are free to work hard and thereby prosper much. They did their best to give us a system of government that guarantees that opportunity for as many as possible, rather than the same outcome for all. Liberty is the catalyst for opportunity, but only in tyranny can government control outcome.

Millions of people in this nation want to rewrite the history and identity of this nation. They want to rewrite the American dream as not being able to work your way up but to get your free handout. When they look at the American flag, they don't see a symbol of self-sacrifice of previous and present generations for the well-being of future generations. They only see an artifact representing archaic and oppressive principles enshrined in an outdated Constitution that should be scrapped. If they gain enough power to do that, the greatness of this nation will one day be a distant memory - a relic on the wall of history to be looked at in curiosity about and mourning over what once was.

*Scripture quotations from the NASB