Glenn Beck has been receiving a boatload of attention over the last several days regarding his criticism of a group of people that has come to be known as the “99ers.” “99ers” are those unfortunate souls who’ve used up the 99 weeks of emergency federal unemployment assistance and are approaching its end with a demeanor of great militancy, organizing protests and establishing a movement in an effort to see an extension of benefits.
Beck makes his living as an entertainer first and foremost, so I take his characterizations of those folks as “anti-American” and “socialist” with a few grains of salt, but Beck’s response, and the attitude of the 99ers, speaks to a larger point: where does the responsibility of society to provide for others begin and/or end?
It can be difficult to quantify things like this, but we know “too much” or “not enough” when we see it. Most reasonable people, I believe, would think that two years of unemployment at the taxpayers’ expense is pretty long, and if it’s not enough, then what is enough? Three years? Five years? For the rest of one’s life?
One 99er, a woman named Connie Kaplan, in full protest mode, was recently quoted by New York Daily News as saying, “Are you going to tell us, President Obama and Congress, that our lives are not worth saving?”
Problem is, Connie, that the question is better asked of the American taxpayers, who are already being fleeced to death in the highly-questionable name of the “greater good.” Unfortunately, the determination of “worth” in matters such as these cannot be measured vacuously or solely in terms of emotion, philosophy, or feelings. Eventually, it has to be measured in terms of money. And sometimes, the answer to questions such as yours, from society’s standpoint, is, simply, “No, they’re not.”
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Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the recently-released book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc; www.investorspassport.com) and the new unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press; www.mikereevesonline.com).
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