A Reasonable Man?
"Gentlemen," he said, as he pounded the desk and
pointed his finger at some mythical object, "because I was born, breathe air and sustain my body with food and am
now unemployed because of a deadly and evil virus invasion from without, this Nation should have to pay and support me for the
rest of my life!"
Question: (voice of reason): "You mean you are no
longer satisfied with unemployment
insurance, the simple right to vote and the ability to be independent?"
"Right to
Vote," he said in scorn, "you cannot sustain your body on the right
to vote! What man needs is money with
which to live!"
"You feel that
you alone should be paid for the rest of your life... or every person who is
unemployed?"
"No, man. . ." he said, "not just me but
every person in this country should be paid who is a citizen of the richest
nation on the planet. If we are going to
fight for something, let it be for an easy living!"
"How do you propose that everyone in this nation
should be paid a livable salary?"
"Let the
government pay everyone!"
"But the government of the United States is you and me
and everyone. We all vote for persons to
represent us as a unified body, but the government, itself, is really us - so
how are we going to pay ourselves?"
"NO, man!" he said, "the government is NOT really you and me. It
is a machine separate and apart from every person within the nation. It lives and breathes by itself! Do you really think my vote, or your vote,
directly causes a representative to go to Washington to look out for our best
interests? Do you know one single,
solitary Representative (I mean personally) who is supposedly looking after
your needs?". . . Then he paused for a moment to reflect..."But even if you are a
responsible voter and desire to know what your representatives are doing for
you, there is the living machine of
government that listens to your telephone conversations and restricts
information to the press and the people of the United States because it might jeopardize the national security. How can this be. . .if, as you say,
Government, itself, is really us? No!
The government is not me or you, but a separate living machine and,
therefore, should pay us all a livable salary just because we are born a
citizen and are alive!"
"How, then, do you propose the government pay everyone
a livable salary when the government gets the money from us - you and me?"
"Oh, man! How dumb can you be?" he said with scorn,
"The Government prints billions of dollars every day! All they have to do is set up a mailing
system and just send it out. We will
spend it and the government will get it back again; then, they will, again,
mail it back out and we will spend it. That's not so hard to understand is
it? And besides, we have been giving
billions of Dollars to foreign countries as foreign and military aid for years
- nobody seemed to care about that!"
"But if everyone was on the dole, who would work and
create those tangible objects we would spend money to obtain?"
"Prisoners could work; don't put them in
jail, make them work instead. Let that
be the punishment for crime - they have to work to make a living."
"But, if everyone received a salary, why would anyone
commit a crime? After a few years, there
would be no one to do the work and we would all starve to death!"
"Stop!" He said, glaring down with dark and angry eyes, " What
to hell are you trying to do? Start
trouble?!"
Piper's
Papers