I am sure you have heard the news about the number of people who get support from the government. And unfortunately this support leads to an attitude of entitlement. The more that is given freely, the less people feel the need to work, to be productive with their lives. The aid seems to suck the desire for productivity. Many millions of underemployed just want the opportunity to work. Others just want more programs to help them.
At the same time productivity is being drained the desire from more aid increases. The Obama phone program is a good example. It started with good intentions. The desperately poor need a phone for emergencies, to hear back from a potential employer or their doctor. Now people pull up in the Escalade talking on their Obama phone spending their food stamps on lobster.
Our proverb tells us that this is the norm. We call these types of folks lazy. They might have a disability, but very few disabilities prevent someone from doing anything. And our system prevents work by removing all benefits if an income threshold is reached. If you feel lazy is too harsh a term, sluggard sounds even worse!
The point of our proverb is satisfaction. When we take the opportunity to be productive, diligent, then we can be satisfied. If we don’t, we are never satisfied.
I know men who are unemployed. It is driving them nuts. They want to be out working, earning a living for their families, which they have done for years, but now they feel like they are spinning their wheels. Their sense of worth has evaporated.
These unemployed only want to be productive again. They don’t want handouts. They want work. They don’t want something for nothing. They just want the chance to go and do something with their time and talents that helps to pay the bills.
The sluggard, on the other hand, always wants more for less. Other people owe them something because of ________ (you fill in the blank). The reason they feel owed may vary, but the result is often the same. They want more given to them.
I can relate to those who get stuck in the handout cycle. We had to use food stamps many years ago for a short period of time. It would have been easy to stay in that state. We choose to get out of it as fast as we could. We hated taking something for nothing. It kept food on the table, but it made us feel sick.
The Arnold Journey 