When I was a young law student, our Natural Law professor at
Notre Dame introduced us to the concept of social justice. He explained
that "social justice is the duty of every society to provide for the
basic needs of every citizen."
But his definition troubled me. I
could not understand why society has a duty to provide for the basic
needs of people capable of providing for themselves, and I asked, "was
there a corresponding duty of the citizen to the society to provide for
his own basic need to the extent he was able?"
He replied, "The citizen has no corresponding duty." I was appalled by this and remain so to this day.
I cannot understand how a person fully capable of providing for his own
needs, in justice, can refuse to work and demand that his neighbor, who
does work, should support him.
What follows is a partial transcript from an Aug. 9, 2013, Fox News Town Hall.
In it we meet a "social justice" recipient who sees no "injustice" in
taking food stamps (a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP
Card) paid for by Americans who work and pay taxes to support his opting
not to work, while living as a beachbum. You can watch it yourself at
youtube.com/watch?v=bP_izYhdehY.
Bret Baier: Food stamp
enrollment has surged since 2008. Forty-seven million Americans are on
the program now at a cost of $85 billion per year.
John Roberts: Meet Jason Greenslate, food stamp recipient.
Jason Greenslate:
Another day in the life of Jason Greenslate, leading the rat life. ... I
wake up, go down to the beach with my friends, hit on some chicks, and
start drinking.
Roberts: ... (This) 29-year-old has
chosen the life of a beach bum. ... He gets by with a little help from
his friends, and you, the taxpayer.
Greenslate: (This is) My EBT SNAP Card ...
Roberts: How do you get a SNAP Card.
Greenslate: Just
go out to the Human Resource Office, have your birth certificate and
your Social Security Card. I don't have a pay check coming in, so I
qualify ... They've got it now so that (you have to qualify) only once a
year.
It wasn't always that easy. Back in 1996, if you were an
able adult like Jason, with no family, there were limitations. You
could get food stamps for only three months, every three years. The
exception was, if you were working at least a 20-hour work week or
participated in a work training program President Obama wiped away those
restrictions when he signed his stimulus bill in 2009. And in 2010,
Obama used his regulatory powers to extend the suspension of those
"welfare to work requirements."
Roberts: So you fill out a form for a SNAP Card and they give you that for a year, no questions asked?
Greenslate:
Yeah, you're good to go. Two hundred dollars per month. Two hundred
dollars. It's free money. It's radical. Why not? ... It's my job to make
sure everything's rolling smoothly -- the sun is up, the girls are out
...
Roberts then accompanied Greenslate to the Gourmet section of the local food mart.
Greenslate: We got achi, salmon, eel, yellowtail with rice and avocado, and they have lobster on special, and coconut water.
He paid with his SNAP Card.
Greenslate:
Two hundred dollars a month ..." (Sliding card). ... All paid for by
our wonderful tax dollars. ... Yeah. I usually get sushi, but I make it
my own way. But they didn't have any good fish, so I just got the
pre-made stuff.
Roberts then inquired why Greenslate didn't work.
Greenslate: That's not the direction I'm going right now.
Roberts: That's not something that appeals to you?
Greenslate: Not whatsoever.
It is a just thing to live on a pension that one has worked a lifetime
to earn. It is an unjust thing to have the government tax -- steal from
-- your neighbor who works so you can refuse to work and spend your life
surfing. It is wrong to divert moneys that should go to the disabled to
play Santa Claus and buy the votes of parasites unwilling to work.
Fifty years ago, I asked the right question.
Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2013, 11:00 pm - Quad-Cities Online
by John Donald O'Shea
Copyright 2013
John Donald O'Shea
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