"Free"

Via Michael 

 

 Excerpt

 As even a casual guest of Liberty’s Torch can easily see, I lack all “compassion” for “the poor.” In point of fact, I’m sick of hearing about them. When someone attempts to rub them in my face, my immediate response is either “How poor are they, and why?” or exceedingly profane. I must confess that I find the shocked face that usually produces somewhat gratifying.

 I’ve been acquainted with persons who were really poor: unable to obtain their next meal without the intervention of charity, divine providence, or a favorable outcome to a bet. That’s not what “poor” means in America today. America’s “poor” are the best fed, best sheltered, and best housed “poor” in the history of Mankind. Moreover, all the opportunities of American society are open to them, if they can muster the price. In many (not all) cases, the price is effort, or thrift, or the sacrifice of one’s indulgences, or all three. Why, then, do they remain “poor?” Are they not as “free to choose” as you or I?

Semantic Encroachments Department