How do you distinguish between true need and a ‘mooching’ culture?
It’s a gray area. Unemployment compensation is necessary for a period of time. But 90-plus weeks of that can be an excuse for people to avoid taking jobs. People rationally decide it’s easier to stay on the couch.
Does this learned helplessness, as you call it, replace ‘employment for life’?
Maybe. But ultimately the use of other people’s money and the vast expansion of benefits won’t substitute for what used to be provided for by the private sector.
Why not?
For those nervous about the economy, there’s an attraction to bailouts, freebies and handouts. But some politicians promise things that are unaffordable and unsustainable. It’s not a solution to our economic problems.
You worry about the young people coming up.
I see a new class of dependency. But we’re living on borrowed time. We’ve drawn down the balance of our bedrock values. Once the stigma of being dependent is gone, more people want to be that way.
You say ‘step away from the trough.’ Why?
Europe is the distant mirror for us. We have to change the dynamic in this country. We need a culture-wide understanding that we can’t have everything and what we’re doing right now is not sustainable.