Welcome to the American Bribe-ocracy By Michael Applebaum, MD for American Thinker
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” That’s from President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961. Poor John must be spinning in his grave. Since then, the USA has revised his words. It is now, “Ask what you can do for your country and how much it is willing to pay you to do it.”
Welcome to the Bribe-ocracy.
“Bribe-ocracy”: a system of government where citizens and/or residents are bribed to behave in a way consistent with the goals of the administration.
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“Bribe-ocrat”: government officials who bribe the population to behave in a manner the officials desire. (Please note that a bribe-ocrat is different from a venal official, commonly known as a “politician.”)
The latest bribe-ocratic behavior modification attempt was announced by The Big Guy on July 29, 2021:
President Biden is urging state and local governments to use coronavirus relief funds to pay citizens $100 a pop to take the coronavirus vaccine, the Treasury Department announced Thursday.
The Biden administration said the payments can come from American Rescue Plan Act funding “as an extra incentive” to increase vaccine acceptance around the country.
The administration had said earlier this year that lotteries and other incentives were acceptable uses of the $350 billion in aid funds doled out to state and local governments.
The latest offer is intended to incentivize people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Biden is not the only pol who is paying people to behave:
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has ordered public sector employees in the Big Apple to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing, announced the $100 payouts for anyone who got the vaccine at a city-run site earlier this week.
Embattled California Gov. Gavin Newsom handed out millions of dollars last month as part of the Golden State’s vaccination push.
In Missouri, state leaders are offering $100 gift cards to thousands of public employees – and Alabama is allowing vaccine recipients of driving age to take two laps around the Talladega Superspeedway…
West Virginia is giving vaccine recipients the choice of either a $100 savings bond or a $100 gift card. In Detroit, just driving someone to a vaccination site can net you $50.
And the USA is not the only country to bribe its population into COVID compliance, as this headline attests:
