Speaking in front of the nation during his inaugural address January 20, 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy uttered his famous quote “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” My my, how things have changed in the last 45 years. JFK was asking Americans to step up and put aside time to serve their country like their parents did during WWII, albeit without the sacrifices they had made. For the most part the call was successful in the numbers that signed up for volunteer organizations like the Peace Corps. Now, its seems like the tables have shifted with everyone having their hands out asking what their country can do for them. I have noticed that in society that there are a lot people out there that feel that they are entitled to everything from jobs, health care, food on the table, child care etc without having to making sacrifices on their end. They believe that its the government's responsibility. During the election, one video clip that was shown, it was one of an African-American girl, I believe during the Democratic National Convention or a huge rally that thought Obama will put fuel in her car, pay for her home and overall take care of her. I know that this is one example out of the 300 million Americans out there but I am an observer of society and culture and you have to admit that we are trending away of the things that made the United States what it is today. What ever happened to rugged individualism, personal responsibility and earning what you have by the sweat of your brow?

I do put some of the blame on politicians of both sides. Every year leading up to an election, they promise us the moon, from better health care, better education, money for various programs bribing certain voting groups just to get elected. As humans, we all love free stuff, but most of us don't look at the big picture and the hidden costs that comes with it or who is really paying for it. We let our emotional side dictate, while it should be the rational side taking charge stepping back and questioning everything our government wants to do for us.

There are two examples making news that proves my point. First, on a national scale, all of the bailouts that are planned and Obama's promise of more taxpayer stimulus. Up until now I was a proponent of the government stepping in certain situations, because some companies are “too big to fail”. That if we let these businesses go under that it will cause a ripple effect in our economy making a small problem into a much larger one. Now that we have to bail out the banks, what next. Are we to bail out the auto industry, credit card companies, retailers, airlines, the housing market, insurance companies, financial services companies etc? The first problem with this is that we will be setting a bad precedent, where if we bailout one industry, what makes them more important than another that is going through the same crisis. Secondly, we don't know that these bailouts will work or are we just delaying the inevitable. If we bailout GM, who is hemorrhaging billions of dollars a month, the solution isn't giving them more money just to hemorrhage it, but we need to tackle what is causing the problem. We should let them go into bankruptcy to get them from underneath the legacy costs that is killing them. Thirdly, by giving them bailout loans to survive, are these companies learning a lesson or are we going to have the same problem when another general economic crisis arises. Before we give out dollar one, we need to look at what caused these companies to go to the brink of disaster and set up regulations and set terms of any bailout that the individual companies and industries have to adhere too.

Personally, I think that the only way the government should stimulate the economy except for monetary policy is government works projects. I am a constitutionalist, I believe that the federal government's primary job is national defense, general welfare of its citizens and INFRASTRUCTURE. We have thousands of bridges and miles and miles of road that is in desperate need of repair and this would be a good time to tackle them. All the money spent will go directly into the construction people's hands that will trickle down through the economy. We are a consumer driven economy.

The second example is a local story from Milwaukee, where the voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum giving them all sick days based on the amount they work. Who wouldn't vote for free sick days. We all know they will all be taken for legitimate reasons. (just a little bit of sarcasm) When voters are standing in the booths they have $$$ in their eyes not seeing how giving every worker in Milwaukee sick days will cripple a lot of businesses especially smaller ones that doesn't currently offer many benefits. Also, no one is saying who is going to pay to administer the enforcement of this rule.

While JFK wanted us to do something for our country, paying higher taxes to bail out mismanaged companies wasn't what he had in mind. Plus he didn't mean that we ask the country for free stuff. Also, we shouldn't be bailing out homeowners that bought houses they know they couldn't afford in the long run. Individuals and businesses need to take responsibility for their own actions and that the government needs to really look at all industries across the economy to find loopholes in regulations that caused this crisis.