It does not matter how many weeks of vacation (Europeans get five), often paid by the nanny state, leisure time and holidays are not enough for the socialist-minded, entitled liberals.
In these five weeks of vacation, employees have the choice to go to spas abroad, often in five star hotels, where pampering, massage, physical therapy, mud baths, sulphur baths, excellent food, and strolls in the most beautiful resorts of Europe are all subsidized by the generous employers “nudged” by socialist policies or by the government.
Years ago, one of my South American colleagues who hailed from a socialist state and spent high school years in France, had the temerity to ask Justice Scalia during the Q & A session of a speech on liberty, why does the Supreme Court not give Americans 2-3 years paid maternity leave and more holidays to spend time with their families? Americans work so hard and look at all the successful countries around the world that place so much emphasis on family and leisure time.
As I know quite well, Europeans place so much emphasis on family that they are committing demographic suicide by having less and less babies, in some countries way below the population replacement value, including countries with Catholic values. But then again, European churches are more or less museums, visited by foreign tourists and frequented by older people who fervently believe in God. The young and the socialists are generally atheist or agnostic. Many of them use churches for convenient traditions such baptism, marriage, and funerals.
I found my colleague’s comment amusing because I knew how broke the European socialist states were in spite of the large revenues from confiscatory income taxes; socialist technocrats had taxed their citizens to death in order to pay for welfare to their own and to the hordes of Muslim invaders who were placated because the customs of the countries they flooded into were offensive to them.
My colleague, a green card holder, had no understanding how a Constitutional republic functions, and did not understand that the Supreme Court is not supposed to legislate from the bench. Unfortunately they do, as was the case of the very expensive and unaffordable Affordable Care Act, deemed a “tax” by a Supreme Court Justice, when in reality it is medical insurance.
Academics work on the average about nine months out of the year and have generous paid leave and numerous holidays. The answer Justice Scalia gave was memorable, “Where is your work ethic? You don’t like to work, Madam? Stay at home with your family. But if you do, who is going to pay the bills?” The embarrassing silence was followed by a low murmur.
I had no idea then that a few years later, during the most transformational administration in U.S. history, fifty percent of Americans would become the “envied” Europeans, the egalitarian socialist welfare dependents seen in movies so fashionably dressed, so much smarter and refined than the loud Americans, never leaving cafes, smoking, discussing art and literature, and sipping on a bottomless glass of wine.
I never thought that Americans, with their strong work ethic, would become the happy beneficiaries of generational welfare and would perfect a way to game the system to their utmost advantage. Even those out of a job, thanks to the disastrous Democrat economic policies, would receive generous two-year unemployment benefits while working off the books.
The lavish and lucrative cradle to grave nanny system worked well for Europeans for a long time in spite of the fact that their governments are broke. Employees are quite adept at receiving their pay under the table in cash. The underground economy that pays no tax is thriving.
Having lost its moral compass, the nanny state U.S.A. has become a society reeking of greed, envy, hate, corruption, lawlessness, and promiscuity. The takers and the entitled, legal and illegal, have outnumbered the givers.
The takers, who repeatedly vote without an I.D. because they are too dumb to procure one but smart enough to produce an I.D. for welfare benefits and free healthcare, will guarantee that our society will become and remain a socialist nanny state.
While those accustomed to sloth are on permanent vacations, free to find themselves and play guitar, thanks to those who still get up and go to work every day, they have the audacity to complain and demonstrate vociferously against those “greedy rich” who do not pay their “fair share.” How did we get here, who bred such a nanny mentality? The answer appears simple – government, the main stream media, Hollywood, television, feminists, liberals, progressives, teachers, and professors.
Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Ileana Writes is a freelance writer, author, radio commentator, and speaker. Her books, “Echoes of Communism”, “Liberty on Life Support” and “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” “Communism 2.0: 25 Years Later” are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
