Archives for March 2009

I was at tango last night when Drudge reported this:
NANNY STATE: GOVERNMENT WEBSITE TO WARN OF SADNESS/CRYING OVER ECONOMY

Mon Mar 30 2009 18:43:56 ET

The U.S. government is set to offer an online emotional rescue kit!

“Getting Through Tough Economic Times” will launch Tuesday with a media push across all platforms.

The site is meant to help people identify health concerns related to financial worries.

The feds will warn of depression, suicidal thinking and other serious mental illnesses. It will raise warning flags for: Persistent sadness/crying; Excessive anxiety; Lack of sleep/constant fatigue; Excessive irritability/anger.

The guide will be available starting at midnight at http://www.samhsa.gov/economy.

Sure enough: You go to http://www.samhsa.gov/economy/ and the “Resources in this guide” sidebar has a whole list of government programs.

Let’s see:

• “Making Housing Affordable” through policies that curtail supply:
  – Onerous zoning requirements and building restrictions
  – Price controls on rents and sale prices
  – Union rules and “living wage” restrictions
  – Forcing banks to make mortgages to the insolvent under the Community Reinvestment Act
• “Foreclosure Assistance” to people who under the Community Reinvestment Act (which is still in the books) went way over their heads buying houses the could not possibly afford
• “Worker Reemployment” in government jobs that do not create wealth, manufacture goods or provide services competitive in the world economy;
  All the while confiscating earnings of “people who earn too much,” politicians not included
• “Government Benefits, Grants, and Financial Aid” so you can live forever dependent on the governmental teat.

And don’t forget that “Starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warrantee (sic).”

While you sit in front of your TV flagellating yourself into a frenzy of self-pity watching Oprah, do you want some cheese with that whiiiiiiiiiiiiiine?

Or you can join the tea party movement, get involved in activities you’re passionate about, take any job you can if you have been laid off, pay up your bills, do something constructive for yourself and your family every day, and not cede all your power to the government.

The government is not here to help.

UPDATE
My friend Richard:

Like everything else, the desire to be cared for by a nanny bureaucracy comes at price: that of being treated like a child. There is no free lunch.

Post-script
In one of those happy coincidences and convergences that have marked my entire life’s journey, last night at tango a friend told me that the guy who wrote All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten took up tango at age 70 and blogs about it, so of course I had to look him up.

I thought the book was a nice enough book but not quite the sort of thing I read, however the combination of tango dancer/blogger is irresistible.

Sure enough, Robert Fulghum does blog about tango:

A dear friend died last week.
Died, as we say, peacefully in his sleep after a long life and a quiet retirement. His files were organized, his basement and garage clean, and all his dues paid up. A tidy end.
Not for me. My goal now is to dance. All the dances. As long as I can.
And then to sit down contented in a chair after the last elegant tango some sweet night and pass on because there just wasn’t another dance left in me.

He also has something to say about other things more pertinent to the subject of this post. From Robert Fulghum’s blog, Act:

Have you ever regretted doing something useful, kind, or generous?
RF: No.
GA: Well, Fulghum it’s time to get busy. You know what you can do, right?
RF: Yes.
GA: Then do it. Get off your butt. The world doesn’t need passengers or observers now. Roll up your sleeves. Get behind the wagon. Lift and push. I’ll give you a one-word motto for the time being.
RF: What’s that?
GA: ACT!

And tango for as long as you can.

UPDATE
Welcome, Dr Helen readers.

UPDATE, Wednesday 1 April
Help needed, for actual help in dealing with crisis.