Green heroin vs. the call to work By James Thrasher, Op-ed Contributor for Christian Post
Addiction to government handouts continues to be a significant economic and societal issue. Recently, some authors have sounded the alarm by tagging the current CARES Act freebies as a form of “green heroin.” This addiction to green dollars has caused free-lunch addicts to lose their desire to work.
The reality is that 150 million people received $1,200 stimulus checks, and 25 million people received a weekly $600 addition to their unemployment checks, and the handouts keep coming. Unfortunately, this new cash has created some new users and cemented a dependency outlook with many established addicts. Why would the unemployed look for work, take a job, or return to work when they can make more money collecting stimulus and unemployment checks?
This unprecedented large-scale government handout of money has produced this freshly normalized perspective for some in our country. Freebies incentivize Americans not to work, which has dire consequences across the economy. The effect of this is being experienced by businesses, many of which are unable to open their doors or are having to curtail their hours because they cannot find a sufficient labor source.
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Matthew Nicaud, in his article “Government Handouts Continue to Stagnate Economic Output,” states that “there is perhaps no more destructive force to destroy the motivation and work ethic of a workforce than the sedative of government handouts.” He adds: “When government doles out the entitlement dollars to the citizens, it sends a message that the nanny state will provide some or all of their income.” Consuming and relying upon this nanny-state sedative has chilling implications for America.
The tangible implications of the government CARES program have prompted a vital and foundational question: Why work?
Work matters. And to those of us of religious persuasion, work matters to God, now and eternally. Work is inherently good. God was, is, and will continue to be a worker. We are His image-bearers. A component of this image-bearing is being created in His likeness as workers. God designed us to work, and it is an essential part of our humanity.
