I’ve been hesitant to give my opinion on this presidential race because I so often get slammed by my liberal acquaintances. Everyone who knows me knows I’m a die-hard conservative, something I’m proud of, something I have no problem admitting.
I was thinking about the debate last night, and about Obama. Something I have a hard time wrapping my brain around is how certain people still want to vote for him. Oh, I understand the people on welfare, dependent on government. I understand those people. Hard work to many people is a loathsome option. People, by nature, would understandably prefer to be lazy. I would love it if someone came up to me and said “Hey, Caitlin, listen. You’ve worked really hard till now, and I think you deserve for all your bills to be paid by [insert 3rd party here]. On top of that, we’re going to give you free health care since you’re not earning your own money and can’t pay for health insurance. Sure, we understand that any money you do earn would be better spent on purses or cars or iPhones. Don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of everything.”
Sure, I would love that. Except it would be a mortal blow to my ego and my pride. I don’t know how to explain it better than that. I am proud of myself for being able to hold a job. I’m proud that every job I have offers me the ability to learn new programs and better myself in the professional world. I’m proud that people want to hire me because of these things! So to strip all of that away, in return for somewhere between $20K-30K in welfare benefits a year…that does not make sense to me personally. I can’t see myself sitting at home watching TV or doing my own thing and not producing anything in return…the thought makes me cringe. Not because I’m a workaholic, but because I personally have to feel like I’m being productive. That’s just me though.
So here’s my analogy. It’s probably influenced a bit by my new obsession Once Upon a Time, but I did a little more research into the myth itself.
This is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
“Once, as Ovid relates in Metamorphoses XI Dionysus found his old schoolmaster and foster father, the satyr Silenus, missing.
The old satyr Silenus had been drinking wine and had wandered away drunk, later to be found by some Phrygian peasants, who carried him to their king, Midas. Midas recognized him and treated him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights with politeness, while Silenus delighted Midas and his friends with stories and songs.
On the eleventh day, he brought Silenus back to Dionysus in Lydia. Dionysus offered Midas his choice of whatever reward he wished for. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into gold.
Midas rejoiced in his new power, which he hastened to put to the test. He touched an oak twig and a stone; both turned to gold. Overjoyed, as soon as he got home, he ordered the servants to set a feast on the table. “So Midas, king of Lydia, swelled at first with pride when he found he could transform everything he touched to gold; but when he beheld his food grow rigid and his drink harden into golden ice then he understood that this gift was a bane and in his loathing for gold, cursed his prayer.” In a version told by Nathaniel Hawthorne in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, Midas found that when he touched his daughter, she turned to gold as well.”
In another version, Midas starves to death because he can’t eat anything.
I’m wondering if anyone else will make the leap that I did in this analogy. It does seem a little far-fetched. Let’s consider, for a moment, that this story relates back to Obama directly. While many of the things he wants to put into law, the socialist tendencies he displays, all of that looks really good on paper (as does the Midas Touch, you might agree), in reality, what it causes is very different. The idea of free health insurance, for example, is a great one, I’ll admit. But at what cost? Who pays for it? Maybe not us, in this generation, but what about the next? Will we continue to borrow money to pay for the growing costs of healthcare? Doctor’s visits, as most of you know, are nowhere near free. Thousands of dollars can be spent on just one visit, even if you aren’t the one paying for the majority of the cost. Who does pay for it? I’m sure it has something to do with the premiums and deductibles insurance companies charge. So for every one sick person who has a hospital visit, ten more healthy ones are still paying their premiums without needing to visit the doctor.
So, with Obamacare, who will be paying those premiums? Not the people on welfare, they don’t have any money to put toward those costs. This concept isn’t a reality for them because they don’t see the FICA and Withholding coming out of their paychecks. But for those of us who do work, will we not see an additional tax snuck in somewhere that adds to the Obamacare fund? Sorry, I really don’t like putting my money toward people who won’t go out and get a job. Some of them make better money than I do! Did you know the average welfare income in Hawaii is $36K a year? That’s just in one tiny state! Add in all the additional states (look up their welfare averages sometime), and then add to that the Obamacare overhaul that’s coming, and we’ll see our middle class families that Obama cares about so much thrown under the bus. Like Romney said last night, the wealthier citizens are doing well in this economy whether Romney’s president or Obama is president. It really doesn’t hurt them much. But the middle class? I don’t know if I can honestly say I’m middle class myself, but trust me, it hurts.
Back to my analogy, my point is, Midas asked for the Golden Touch out of laziness and greed. Why fight the other countries around my borders for their gold, when I can just touch something and make it gold? Why make sure my people are working and producing when I can make them prosper with just a touch? Even if that touch means I can’t eat? Are we going to trade “food” for “gold”? I’m sure his people were really happy with the results for awhile, until others came to collect. While the Midas touch made the king wealthy for awhile, it was never said he was immortal. Even if he did figure out a way to eat, what happens when he dies? And his people have become so used to not producing and not working that another country just comes in to sweep up the uncoordinated mess that’s left? The endings of the Midas story varies: in one, he starves to death because everything he touches turns to gold. In another, he accidentally turns his daughter to gold. In the Once Upon a Time version, he turns his daughter’s lover and fiancee to gold. In some versions, after he’s lost everything near and dear to him, he washes his hands in a river which rids him of the curse. In others, he dies. Regardless of the telling, obviously the “Midas Touch” wasn’t everything it was made out to be. In all except the mildest versions of King Midas, Midas himself ends up miserable and alone, or in some cases, a hermit.
So I suppose my conclusion is this. Obama himself is referred to almost reverently by people still. People who perhaps haven’t seen the severe consequences of his “Golden Touch.” But what happens when they do? Will it be too late at that point? Will America have been “turned to gold” at that point, just waiting for another country to invade and snatch us up? I really hope a good portion of these people who are starstruck by the Midas Touch foresee the consequences of this “gift” before it’s too late.
Puppies, Politics, and Paperbacks 