Now that the full court press to refute the findings of the CBO report which, as we reported, confirmed what was largely known – that as a result of Obamacare, the strapped US economy will have even fewer workers as millions will fall back on welfare state entitlements which make hard work obsolete – has failed, it is time for the propaganda to take a different track: one where not having a job, and in fact losing it due to Obamacare, is hailed as an act of nobility. Sure enough, here comes one of the administration’s favorites, the Bezos Times, with “They quit their jobs, thanks to health-care law” which does largely as its name suggests: highlights just how “enabling” and “liberating” Obamacare is for one’s life, once a person is no longer burdened by something as trivial as a job.
No, we aren’t kidding:
Count Polly Lower among those who quit their jobs because of the health-care law.
It happened in September, when her boss abruptly changed her job description. She went from doing payroll, which she liked, to working on her boss’s schedule, which she loathed. At another time, she might have had to grit her teeth and accept the new position because she needed the health benefits.
But with the health-care law soon to take effect, she simply resigned — and hasn’t looked back.
“It was wonderful. It was very freeing,” said Lower, 56, of Bourbon, Ind., who is now babysitting her 5-year-old granddaughter full time. With the help of federal subsidies that kicked in Jan. 1, she is paying less than $500 a month for health coverage for herself and her husband.
One really can’t make this up – it appears that in America’s creeping transition to a socialist paradise, the new American dream is living on “Federal subsidies” (paid for by taxpayers) and government welfare. It gets better:
The White House and its allies argue that the government has a role in addressing a failure of the health-insurance market: the high prices and coverage restrictions that have kept health coverage out of reach for so many people. Like Social Security, which provides a safety net so people can retire, the health law may have the effect of leading some Americans to stop working, they say. But they called the impact positive, arguing that people have for too long been stuck in jobs that are a poor fit or that they dislike, simply for the benefits. While some people may make the calculation to just work less to keep more generous benefits, many will use their time to do something more productive, such as start their own business or take care of family members, advocates of the new law say.
“What the White House wants you to think is, if a person chooses to make less income, they must be doing something that makes them better off,” said former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, now president of the American Action Forum, a conservative policy group. “What conservatives would have you ask is, is it an appropriate use of someone else’s money to put you in that position to choose?”
The CBO acknowledged that there could be some positive economic impacts from unleashing people from their jobs but concluded that there was no good way to quantify that, and therefore left the number out.
Incidentally, “unleashing people from their jobs” may be the punchline of 2014. And why not, everything else is rapidly going to bizarro socialist hell. Actually, here is another punchline candidate: “tethered to a job“:
Lower acknowledged that it has been harder to make ends meet without a steady paycheck. But she said there is no way to quantify the peace of mind she feels, now that she isn’t tethered to a job she hates and can help her daughter, a single mother who works full time, with child care.
Lower expected to miss her job. “It was definitely a scary move to make,” she said. “I’m a person who likes routine, and there definitely was an adjustment period.”
But upon reflection, she said, “I’ve adjusted well.”
We hate to break it to you, but “adjusting” to living on the welfare of others, while being untethered, and unleashed from the tyranny of working (hard) and paying taxes is not exactly training for the Ironman Triathlon. Also, the final outcome when the entire population becomes untethered and unleashed is rather unpleasant – just see every socialist paradise in history.
However, what is becoming clear is that slowly but surely, the entire process of labor and being employed is increasingly cast in a negative light: something which is not exactly surprising. At least not to our readers, because, sadly, we were once again just over a year ahead of the prevailing sentiment when, in November of 2012, we wrote “When Work Is Punished: The Tragedy Of America’s Welfare State” when we said that “for increasingly more it is now more lucrative – in the form of actual disposable income – to sit, do nothing, and collect various welfare entitlements, than to work. This is graphically, and very painfully confirmed, in the below chart from Gary Alexander, Secretary of Public Welfare, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (a state best known for its broke capital Harrisburg). As quantified, and explained by Alexander, “the single mom is better off earnings gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income & benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income and benefits of $57,045.” That was then. Now we can add Obamacare… which will further help America’s now almost extinct middle class get even more untethered and unleashed.
Of course, it is up to the likes of the Bezos Washington Post to make it appear that this is all not only perfectly normal, but noble and dignified.
Alas, as smarter people than us have pointed out, being untethered and unleashed only works as long as the system has other people’s money to distribute to those who chose not to work and pay taxes. Once said money runs out , complete social collapse and revolution usually follows.
