GFF Government Funded Families

50 years of Social, Political, and Economic Change

and the

Unintended Consequence of

GFF, Government Funded Families

This summer I will be going to my 50^th high school reunion at, Lincoln High, Des Moines Ia. This trip has got me thinking about where I came from, the values, experiences, and just life in general that I have been a participant in and a witness to.

Values: Behavior: What comes to mind is the word change. We have seen, since the 60's, a major change in American society and I am not sure the changes, (the solutions) to our perceived social, personal, political, economic or religious problems have produced as advertised. From a macro view I see we have gone from Social forces governing our general behavior, relationships, and private and public actions to a law and regulations ruled society enforced and interpreted by government. For example; If my dad did not work we did not eat, have a home, car etc. Today we have government programs that will take care of those basics. We also have multi generation welfare families (GFF).

Primarily these social forces were passed from church and family to the individual and later by society. The formation of guilt and shame was a important part of what kept our society from chaos. I currently believe that the chaos we currently experience is a direct result of unintended consequences of political overreach by government. In fact, I believe the unintended consequences have been worse for our society than the percieved problems they were intended to deal with and we continue to try and solve the new problems, which are the unintended consequences of the original problems, with the same actions, programs, behavior etc. More tax money by the billions, new government programs by the thousands, more power too the government by new laws and regulation , and more government favor to we who take and less for we who pay. 

 

The First Domino:

I remember as a teenager in the 60's I was driven by two competing impulses. Life was simple. Sex, and the reality of pregnancy. The competing impulses were so strong that they could only be managed by the fear of what if she gets pregnant and the prospect of guilt and shame. My fear, and the eventuality of feeling shame, the impact on my family, friends, my own self respect and self esteem shaped my own values, and morals. I was shamed and guilted into being responsible for my actions and if there was a pregnancy then I had taken the risk and deserved the consequence. All that quilt and shame was removed from my adolescents with the pill quickly followed by ROE v Wade. The first lead to the second. The primary social problem, teen pregnancy gave rise to increased sexual activity, that gave rise for the need to avoid consequence and therefore use abortion(an unintended consequence) as a means to fix sex without guilt or consequence.. The rise in STD, HIV, Post Abortion Stress, and oral sex being described by our President as not having sex with that women. All of this is an unintended consequence and we continue to poor billions of dollars, ruined lives and ruined families into attempting to fix that which was not broke. Government can not ever fix this type of social problem. Is all they can do is make laws and spend money and create dependency. The GFF is here and makes up a very large portion of our general population.

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Social: Teen pregnancy. It was a problem and societies solutions were to shame, socially isolate, non medical abortions, and single motherhood with out welfare or social supports from the Government. With these social actions the notion of shame was the controlling mechanism and the reality of not being able to support, feed, house, cloth a child as a single mother, were the regulating forces that were controlling factors in sexual behavior and child bearing in the 60's.

As can be seen in the above chart, during the 1960's something happened to our society. The change has been consistent and dramatic dramatic. The very fabric of American society which had been based on the Family has dramatically changed. The family, as the central vehicle to moral development and the maintenance of values and mores that are essential to avoiding social chaos, has been dramatically undercut and has been replaced with a utilitarian ethic that is promoted by the left and is supported by Big Government. Today's 50% divorce rate, 50% of children being raised in single mother homes, 1.3 million elective abortions, 50 million on food stamps, 14.5% real unemployment, 2% real economic growth, the nationalization of 1/6^th of the US economy, 17 trillion in debt, 4.5 trillion in bailouts and stimulus and much more. All of the governments expansion since the 1960”s has caused an explosion in number of Government Funded Families(GFF), to include funding for food, clothing, healthcare, childcare, work training, education and many other federal subsidies.

In one generation we have successfully defeated the nature of family, its responsibilities(to have and raise children), its power,(to provide and protect), and its rights(to be free of government intrusion). We have done what the communist, socialists,and fascist could not get done because of the US. And now here we are with no good solutions on the horizon. The notions of personal freedom, freedom from government interference in our life, taxation without representation, the bill of rights, liberty, freedom of political speech, a government that does not have to follow the law, lawmakers that become wealthy at taxpayers expense, a smaller population of we the people who pay and a growing population of we the people who take.

The growth of government has a direct correlation on the growth of the we who take. They put and keep the government in power to pass laws and regulations for those who take. And take taxes and fees at an ever increasing rate from those who pay. Who is the largest employer in the US. GM, Verizon, ATT.,US steel, Ford, DuPont, . Not even close. It is the Federal, State and Local government. Not counting the military. 11 million: 1.8 million civil servants, 870,000 postal workers, 1.4 million military personnel, 4.4 million contractors, and 2.5 million grantees. Plus 3 million actual employees in government

Now we have young blacks roaming the streets beating up white people just for the fun of it. We have the gay activist finding 5 year old political donations by business persons and bringing pressure to fire them because they did not agree with their position. There excuse is they have been oppressed by the white dominate culture, In fact they have been coddle by a nanny state that has given them living basics for the price of self esteem and self control. This is just one of 1000's of examples of unintended consequences. The most glaring is the, Roe, V Wade decision based on a woman right to privacy. What a great decision, women now have abortions in private. We now kill 1.3 million babies a year, in private. Just think if all those babies were here and participated in the work force. What was sold to the public as a woman's right to choose. The right to choose has become a selfish behavior of convenience where the state chooses to not protect the most vulnerable of societies members. All this for a made up right to privacy, not in the constitution. This was the beginning of the lefts willingness to do whatever they needed to do in order to get government to do for them what they could not get done within the society at large. At least not as fast as they wanted it done. In order for the left to accomplish this they needed a much larger government and they got it. Starting with President Johnson's Great Society. This was the enabling legislation for the next 50 years of welfare growth. 

There are literally 1000's of unintended consequences and we could never deal with all the problems they have created.  However,  there is some small hope and that is this experiment in socialism will not work just as the other experiments in government funded families has not worked anywhere in the world.  The original experiment (1776 to 1963) conservative constitutionalism,  was working but maybe to slow for some but we have now been run over by all the helping promised by government.