[This post is for Dr. Susan Rumble, in appreciation]
What’s happened to Charity, you ask, Sweet, Sweet Charity? We don’t see her around much any more.
Well, it’s a sad story, since you ask.
You remember Charity, don’t you? Sweet Charity? That free-love flower-child with the pretty face who always seemed to be around when you needed her? She didn’t ask a lot of questions, didn’t make you fill out forms, just gave freely of herself, gave out of love. And the needy loved her back. It was a more innocent time. Charity was still young.
What happened to her? you wanna know.
It was sad, and happened sometime during the Great Depression – she got kidnapped, just like the Lindbergh baby, but kidnapped by the government; they took her away and she’s never been the same since! While she’s not dead, she’s still changed beyond all recognition.
Charity’s not young anymore now, not innocent, and she’s no more a beauty. She weighs 1000 pounds, she smells real bad, she’s hard, she wears government-issue make-up, and she has a new name, as well as a number. Like I said, you wouldn’t recognize her anymore. Now she has bosses who make her give her favors to anyone who comes to the door, and that includes illegals; she doesn’t give freely anymore, she’s forgotten how to love. And the needy, they don’t love her anymore either; it’s just wham bam, but not even a whispered thank you ma’am ever to be heard. They think they have it coming, they think she owes it to them. And they never stop wanting more. I don’t think she remembers how it once was.
Charity’s gone, one more round, Charity’s gone
Charity’s gone, one more round, Charity’s gone
Well they took my Charity
Dressed her all in Brown
Took her to the inner city
And then they laid her down
The government took Sweet Charity from the people, and made her a slave. Poor Charity, they’ve given you a number and taken away your soul. Charity’s going by the name Welfare now; you can find her on any corner in
Who feeds her, you wanna know?
Well, we do – whether we want to, or not.
Who will the government kidnap next? I wonder …
Welfare is charity writ large upon the state.
The story of charity and welfare is just an instructive example.
Socialist government is always on the lookout for any successfully working privately operated social process. If it’s large and has either financial or political governmental advantages, it takes it over. Today, the Democrat administration in office has already taken banking and the auto-industry. They’re on their way to insurance. They want to take the media. They want to control energy, that’s what “cap and trade” is about. Healthcare is next.
Socialism does not necessarily entail formal government ownership, it can simply work out a quid-pro-quo with large industry which screws the ordinary people – that’s what Hitler did with outfits like Krupp as well as all the other large German industries of the time. He did not nationalize, he made it worth their while to be government puppets. We see the Obama administration doing that with the pharmaceuticals, the bankers, and the insurance companies, it’s not new. They have a lovely dance: he pisses on them in his speeches, but they get all kinds of inducements and special deals on the quiet. He pays them to be his official public enemies so that he can strut for his crowds like a skinny Mussolini.
Great post.
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