Dear Editor:
People prefer work to welfare. Brazil and some countries in Africa where work is not available are fighting poverty and unemployment with “UBI,” Universal Basic Income. This is a program of cash transfers to the poor. These transfers result in people eating better, less domestic violence, and improved “mental health.”
However, in the U.S., joblessness is perhaps more debilitating than a low paying job. Suicide, divorce, and opiod use are all associated with non-employment. In a recent survey, only 7 percent of men in households earning less than $35,000 per year reported being dissatisfied with their lives. But among the unemployed of all incomes, dissatisfaction soars to 18 percent.
Being rewarded for personal responsibility — for showing up on time each day, for getting the job done, and knowing that someone values you and your effort is satisfying. Certainly more than standing in line for food stamps, meeting with social workers to fill out forms qualifying you and your family for government benefits, and standing in line again to collect those benefits.
The United States of America has been built on “personal responsibility.” People around the world have wanted to come here to build something. Free from class distinctions (England, India), we are free to try anything. The “school of hard knocks” is a hard teacher, but we learn, and try again, and learn. Eventually we get “it” and with success comes satisfaction, and the ability to mentor someone else with the desire to “try.”
Stuart Deans
Lockwood
