Subsidizing Egos

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Subsidizing Egos

The following is from Thomas Sowell. Compassion Versus Guilt. pp. 34 - 36

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Subsidizing Egos

One of the curious features of the modern welfare state is how often its unskilled and so-called "menial" work is done by foreigners. Maids in homes and hotels, agricultural laborers toiling under a hot sun, as well as hospital orderlies, bus boys, sweepers, and other such non-prestigious jobs are often filled disproportionately by aliens.

Despite much fashionable talk which suggests that today jobs are plentiful only for people with hi-tech skills, the cold fact is that thousands of poorly educated Mexicans cross the border every week and go right to work. How can people new to the country and its language constantly keep finding jobs that elude native-born Americans?

Nor is the United States unique. Similar jobs in the Western European welfare states are often filled by people from other parts of the world. They are called "guest workers" and there are literally millions of them.

This pattern tells us something about the welfare state in general. The justification used for taking away what some people have worked for, and giving it to others, is that the recipients are unable to take care of themselves. But if people with even fewer advantages are able to support themselves—and often save money to send home—then it is time to wonder and question.

Some members of society are clearly unable to take care of themselves—the physically or mentally handicapped, for example. But you can see some very healthy-looking people standing in soup lines, and hear middle-class accents among those using food stamps in the stores.

Even worse, many of the deep thinkers in our universities, editorial offices, and social organizations talk as if people are "entitled" to what others have worked for, and should not be forced to take "menial" jobs. It doesn't seem to bother them that others are forced to work to support the idle.

Welfare state spending is sold politically as "compassion" for the unfortunate. But these vast expenditures do not protect people from hunger so much as they protect their egos from having to earn their own food by doing whatever work matches their capabilities.

Studies of multi-problem families show that many of those being supported by the taxpayers are people who didn't bother to learn when they were in school, didn't bother to get work experience or job skills afterwards, and often don't bother to obey the law either. There are consequences to that kind of behavior. What the welfare state does is to force others to pay the consequences.

The alternative is not to leave people to starve. There is far too much work around for anyone to starve. Masses of foreigners who take jobs others won't do prove that. Nor do these jobs leave people at a starvation level. Often the foreigners who take them begin buying a home, opening a little business, or otherwise start moving up after a few tough years. Studies in a number of countries show the average immigrant eventually overtaking the average native-born individual in income. But it takes work and it is no picnic.

The harsh realities of life do not disappear because some people's egos are cushioned by the welfare state. More of the burden is simply carried by others—the decent, working people who pay the taxes and are treated as expendable.

Welfare mothers whose children are in school do not have to be idle—at someone else's expense. As the welfare system is set up, however, a welfare mother would often lose money by taking a job—and might lose other valuable benefits and protections as well. She may not be able to afford the gamble.

The real culprits are those who created a system that makes it dangerous to work and safe to loaf, those who have turned honest work into a shame and made being a parasite respectable.

Such labels as "menial" and "dead-end" jobs disparage the very necessary work of keeping things clean, growing food, or tending children. For young workers especially, the things you can learn on such jobs—responsibility, co-operation, punctuality—can be lifelong assets in many other occupations. Insulating people from such realities is one of many cruelties perpetrated under the banner of "compassion."

—November 1, 1984

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Most of the houses in our neighborhood are now owned by Latins. What kind of work do these Latins do? Construction work, manual labor, mowing lawns. When our development was first built it was white professionals who were buying here. Then blacks started buying and then Latins. Our entire area is now mostly Latin. The Latins must be doing well to be able to buy these houses which are in the $500,000 to $600,000 range.

With all of the blacks that are on welfare in this area I have often wondered why you never see black males doing manual work. It is always Latins.

When the Great depression hit, my Father’s father (my grandfather) lost his job in a factory and had to take whatever job he could find in order to feed his family. The job he found was cutting railroad ties with a crosscut saw. That is hard work. Railroad ties are made of oak. My father who was in high school at the time had to drop out of school and help him. They had to bring in enough money to live on.

My grandfather had only a second grade education and could do little more than sign his name. He was forced to drop out of school when he was only seven years old when his father left his mother. He had to work to bring in money for the two of them to live on. He told me he often had to lie about his age to get jobs. He seemed to me to be an honest, good man.

Back in those days life was hard.

The big thing I remember about my father when I was young was how hard a worker he was. In addition to his regular job he was always working on some project at home. He built a chimney for the house, put in hardwood floors, built a garage, etc. Those were memories when I was only four or five years old. When I was six we moved from our home in a small village to a farm they purchased. In those first several years after buying that farm his capacity for work was just amazing to me. He changed the barn all around putting the milking parlor in a different part of the barn. He poured concrete for the new milking parlor floor and put concrete in the barnyard using a small concrete mixer. He built two corn cribs and moved the granary to a different location. He also made all kind of changes in our house including building a new kitchen. He did all this while farming a 80 acre farm with 35 cows and holding a regular factory job. He was 27 years old when we moved to the farm.

My father was slightly built and 5 foot, 10 inches tall.

28 May 2024