Welcome to SnyderTalk!
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Unemployment Benefits are Becoming a Dependence Problem
Imagine that you meet a young woman and after introductions, you ask, “What do you do?”
“I’m unemployed,” she says.
“That’s too bad. I hope you find a job soon.”
Nothing unusual so far, but the conversation is about to take an interesting turn.
“I’m not looking for a job. Being unemployed is what I do.”
The look on your face shows your bewilderment. What on earth is she talking about?
Welcome to the new United States of America, the Obama model that you voted to give another chance even though he didn’t earn it. Yesterday, he said,
“So if we don’t see an agreement between the two leaders in the Senate, I expect a bill to go on the floor—and I have asked Senator Reid to do this—put a bill on the floor that makes sure that taxes on middle class families don’t go up, that unemployment insurance is still available for 2 million people, and that lays the groundwork then for additional deficit reduction and economic growth steps that we can take in the New Year.”
I suppose that if you have never had to earn a living you wonder why anyone should have to. That’s the problem with freebees. People who get them never learn to appreciate the importance of being able to take care of themselves. They think that their mere existence is their contribution to society.
Several years ago, I read a study about unintentionally creating dependence, and one of its findings made a lasting impression on me. The study concluded that when parents continue giving their children money after they should be taking care of themselves, it destroys their interest in ever becoming independent. The most shocking finding to me was how little money it takes to destroy their initiative. I can’t remember exactly how much it was, but $100 per month rings a bell.
Unemployment insurance has a place in a mobile society, but taken too far, I suspect that it has the same effect on our populace. People learn to live on less, and doing nothing to earn their way, they eventually lose interest in taking initiative to improve their condition. As a nation, that’s an outcome that we can’t afford.
This type of problem isn’t new to us. The generational welfare dependence problem is very similar if not identical to the burgeoning problem we’re creating with unemployment. Simple logic and common sense are all that it should take to connect the dots, but as I used to tell my students, common sense isn’t common.
President Obama says that he understands the connection between welfare and dependency:
I think we should acknowledge that some welfare programs in the past were not well designed and in some cases did encourage dependency.… As somebody who worked in low-income neighborhoods, I’ve seen it where people weren’t encouraged to work, weren’t encouraged to upgrade their skills, were just getting a check, and over time their motivation started to diminish. And I think even if you’re progressive you’ve got to acknowledge that some of these things have not been well designed.
Why can’t the president see beyond welfare dependence to unemployment dependence, for example? I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I suspect that his nearsightedness is a result of his reliance on others to do things for him that he should have done for himself and doing quite well, thank you.
Problem is the president isn’t ordinary. He has other attributes that made and make him an attractive front man for others with something to gain from him doing well. I won’t delve into what their motives are, but I will say this: few people who are willing to become part of a permanent dependent class have those same qualities.
As a nation, we face many daunting challenges not the least of which is energizing our people so that they learn to achieve at a high level and begin to enjoy accomplishing things. Failing to take this issue seriously and then taking steps to reverse the tide of mediocrity that has a tight grip on a large and growing number of our citizens will result in national suicide.
We can’t afford to support the young and the old in this country at the same time. No society can. That’s one of the lessons that we should have learned from Europe. Make no mistake: this problem is already beginning to attract attention, and it will attract a lot more attention in the days ahead because no nation can survive and thrive while the majority of its citizens remain on the dole. It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3.
This SnyderTalk editorial first appeared in American Thinker.
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Ezekiel 39: 21-24
“And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. And the house of Israel will know that I am Yahweh their God from that day onward. The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them.”
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His Name is Yahweh explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important. It’s available in eBook format and in paperback.
- God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This [Yahweh] is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3: 15)
- “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
- “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
- Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8: 58)
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To download the entire audio presentation, click here.
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Hosea 4: 6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
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PA official: US pressuring Arab FMs not to visit Ramallah
Settlers peacefully evacuate Oz Zion outpost
Sa’ar rejects UK criticism of Ariel college upgrade
Egypt lets building material shipment into Gaza
Brahimi: Choice in Syria between diplomacy or ‘hell’
‘Suha Arafat admits husband premeditated Intifada’
Jordan gears up for parliamentary elections
‘The responsibility is now on us’
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Livni Blames Bennett for Violence. Bennett: Huh?
Extremists Mount Anti-iPhone Campaign
Youths Leave Outpost at Sabbath’s End
Jews Outraged by Hitler Statue in Warsaw Ghetto
Russia Urges Assad to Talk to Opposition
Hamas to Allow Fatah to Celebrate in Gaza
IDF Postpones Eviction After Clashes Break Out
Wife of ‘Samaria Spy’: The Right has Abandoned Us
Religious Party Urges Hareidim: ‘Share the Burden’
US Liberal Jews’ War on Orthodoxy at Kotel
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Golan Heights Residents: Israel is Ignoring Ongoing Bombing, Shooting from Syria
Syrian opposition’s refusal to talk causes stalemate: Russian FM
Report: Iran Plans Hormuz Strait Naval Maneuvers
Israeli Arab Knesset Member Meets with Imprisoned Terrorists
A Jordanian-Palestinian confederation aired by Netanyahu, Abdullah
British Rapists and Pedophiles Converting to Islam in Prison
Morsi Urges Egyptian Opposition to Engage After Constitution Enacted
Chinese prison factories revealed
Putin shows Russian insecurity in signing ban on US adoption of orphans
No punishment for Palestinian honor killings
Hamas bans Palestinian journalists from Israeli media co-operation
Protests in India after Delhi gang-rape victim dies
Indians mourn Delhi rape victim’s death
Obama Proposes Last Minute “Mini Deal,” Adding Milk Lobby Bonus
US shuts embassy in Central African Republic
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Jonathan S. Tobin: The Women and the Wall Between Israel and the Diaspora—In the last week, the New York Times has published two articles on the simmering controversy in Israel over the right of non-Orthodox Jewish women to worship at Jerusalem’s Western Wall. The Wall may be a sacred site for all Jews, but it is operated as an open air Orthodox synagogue under the authority of a foundation determined to keep it that way. Thus the desire of women who adhere to the beliefs of Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist Judaism to pray with Torah scrolls and in prayer shawls is considered a breach of the peace leading to unfortunate scenes in which female worshipers have been dragged off to jail. As far as most American Jews are concerned this is an outrage, and the latest argument over the activities of the Women of the Wall, who have been pushing to change the status quo there, has created another surge of anger that has led Prime Minister Netanyahu to say that he will initiate a study by Natan Sharansky that will seek to explore ways to make the place more accommodating to all Jews.
Seth Mandel: Why a Jordanian-Palestinian Confederation Is Unrealistic—On the list of possible solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, somewhere between “fully independent Palestinian state on PA territory” and “Jordan is Palestine” falls a hybrid of the two: “Jordanian-Palestinian confederation.” Longtime Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab writes in the Atlantic that the idea seems to be experiencing something of a revival. Most notably, Mahmoud Abbas himself has reportedly suggested its consideration.
Daniel Greenfield: How Obama’s Policies Led to Benghazigate—And why more killing fields hover on the horizon in the president’s Brave New Middle East.
Jeremy Rosen: What Does ‘Mildly Islamist’ Mean?—The Economist, amongst many others, loves to refer to Recep Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey, and his Justice and Development…
Jacob Kimchy: An Open Letter to Israeli Arab Knesset Member Ibrahim Sarsur—To remind you, on March 27, 2002, 250 Israelis celebrated Passover at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel. None of them imagined…
Barry Shaw: Why a two-state solution will never work— Original Thinking: What will happen when you have pressured Israel into allowing a Palestinian entity to take hold on the 1967 borders, an entity that is taken over by a radical Islamic force bent on Israel’s destruction?
Michael Pinto-Duschinsky: Jews and Human Rights In Europe: the Unfulfilled Promise— Seventy years ago, on December 17 1942, British Foreign Minister Sir Anthony Eden reported to the House of Commons that the Jews of Germany and German-occupied Eastern Europe were being systematically starved and murdered. He read a declaration by the Allies (named by Franklin Delano Roosevelt the “United Nations”) condemning this “bestial policy.” The declaration included a “solemn resolution to ensure that those responsible for these crimes shall not escape retribution.” The Allies, declared Eden, would try to give asylum to as many refugees as possible.
Jonathan S. Tobin: Obama Falling for Iran Deception Again?— During the last decade both the Obama administration and its predecessor went down the garden path with Iran several times. Yet every time Washington believed the Islamist regime was finally embracing diplomacy and that a solution to the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions was imminent, the ayatollahs pulled the rug out from under its gullible Western adversaries. This has happened so many times that one would think it would be impossible for the Iranians to pull off this trick again but it appears that the United States is about to play Charlie Brown to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Lucy Van Pelt and her football again.
Glenn Fairman: Sam Colt and the Law of Self-Preservation—Of all laws that are deemed to have their origin in nature, the Law of Self-Preservation is indeed the most fundamental. The use of a firearm has irrevocably changed the dynamic relationship between both predator and victim.
Rich Lowry: Questions for Gun Controllers—What matters: intentions or results?
Shoshana Bryen: ‘Carnage in Schedule Two’—Is Israel a “schedule one” country and Syria a “schedule two”? Looking at a prescient piece in The Guardian from 1982.
Sudhanshu Tripathi: Syria’s Top Commander Switches His Loyalty to Join Rebels—Joining a host of other defectors, most of whom cite the Assad government’s atrocities against its own people as the reason for their flight.
Michael Kelbaugh: Debt and Future Generations—Putting aside the issue of whether our foreign creditors will get antsy and interest rates will climb, if the entirety of our debt were held by fellow Americans, it would still reduce the net wealth of future generations.
Bill Schanefelt: Why We Fight — Why We Must Fight— Of the Grey Lady’s very own éminence grise on all matters profound, foreign and domestic, Mr. Rubin said that he is an example of a “pipsqueak whose most strenuous activity is hailing a taxi” who thinks he “can teach revolutionaries willing to commit genocide how to play nice. They don’t understand the significance of what these radicals say and do.”
John C. Goodman: Voting for Liberals— If you are one of the folks who voted for Barack Obama in the last election, what did you vote for? More generally, if you voted for any liberal politician, what did you vote for?
Daniel J. Mitchell: The Continuing Exodus of Jobs – and Taxable Income – from California— Chevron Corp. will move up to 800 jobs – about a quarter of its current headquarters staff – from the Bay Area to Houston over the next two years but will remain based in San Ramon, the oil company told employees Thursday. …The company already employs far more people in Houston – about 9,000 full-time employees and contractors – than it does in San Ramon.
John Fund: Be Gone With the Wind—Two decades of subsidies are enough.
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Blessings in the Book of Revelation is a book that you need to read, especially now. There are blessings throughout the Scriptures but Revelation is the only book in the Bible actually containing a specific blessing for reading it. It’s repeated twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. This is the reason that I believe Revelation should be the first step toward studying biblical prophecy. Though not easy to do, Revelation can be broken down and understood by anyone, not just the academic elite. So, Revelation’s blessings are for everyone. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
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Other Books by Neil Snyder
- Stand! is a suspense novel that exposes the lies, corruption, and greed underlying the theory that man-made CO2 emissions are responsible for global warming. Professor Wes Carlyle and Karen Sterling, his research collaborator, carefully scan the audience for their would-be attacker—a member of the enviro-gestapo who has been following them for days. Wes spots his man in the back of the room leaning against the wall. Suddenly, another man in the audience steps forward and moves toward Karen at a menacing pace. With a vicious stroke, he swings a billy club at her head. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
- What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Life? deals with a question that every Christian has to consider: what should I do with my life? Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
- Falsely Accused is a true story about a young woman who was accused of committing a double homicide. It’s about a travesty of justice, and it reveals Yahweh intervening in the life of a believer to rescue her from danger in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Everyone will enjoy the book, but young people in particular need to read it because the mistakes made that led to the problem could have been avoided. They were the kinds of mistakes that young people are prone to make. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
