The impact of low moral standards
Jul 5, 2018 15:04:25 #
The impact of low moral standards
Mike Huckabee ~ July 3, 2018
There are a lot of things people like to believe that are patently absurd if you think about it (much of the Obama Administration was based on making nonsensical declarations – “We can’t just drill our way out of an energy shortage,” etc. – in a somber tone that made them sound like unquestionable fact.) One of the most common is that “the government can’t legislate morality!”
But of course, they do it all the time. We have millions of laws, just to enforce society’s consensus of what’s morally right or wrong. Each law comes with loopholes that someone will try to exploit, so government adds more laws. Plus, police, courts and jails, because some people will always insist on doing the wrong thing anyway. All this to legislate morality.
Self-government requires self-discipline, self-respect, and respect for others. When people don’t follow the accepted standard moral code, government keeps passing new laws to try to force them to, which creates bigger government and more expense for everybody. Maybe the national debt wouldn’t be sky high now if our behavior standards hadn’t sunk so low.
How much do people’s bad personal choices end up costing all the rest of us? You might be surprised at the size of the bill. When I left the governor’s office in Arkansas, we had more than 13,000 inmates in the Department of Corrections. Just keeping them locked up cost taxpayers more than $220 million a year. That’s more than it would have cost to send 13,000 kids to any college in the state, all expenses paid. If every prison inmate had just lived a moral life and stayed out of trouble, the taxpayers could have enjoyed a $220 million tax cut. The money might have been used to improve roads and services that benefit everyone.
From the left, I’d always hear that we should spend more money on prisoners or else turn more of them loose. From the right, I’d hear that we should lock up more people and eliminate parole while cutting the prison budget. Both were unrealistic. But hardly anyone wanted to talk about the real problem: the lack of morality that led to all those people being locked up in the first place.
And what about juvenile offenders? Every kid placed into our Division of Youth Services cost taxpayers up to $80,000 a year. If they’d all had stable, nurturing homes and been taught to be obedient, responsible and moral, it would’ve saved the taxpayers of just that one state $80 million a year. Imagine how many parks we could have built for all kids to enjoy if we could’ve freed up $80 million a year in the state budget.
A lot of kids get into trouble because of peer pressure. They think breaking the rules makes them look cool to their friends. So, kids, when someone you know starts acting up, instead of rewarding them with your admiration, please tell them instead, “That’s not cool! Thanks for costing us our parks and turning our generation into tax s***es, jerk!”
Hey, as long as kids are going to be vulnerable to peer pressure, why not use its power for good?
Mike Huckabee ~ July 3, 2018
There are a lot of things people like to believe that are patently absurd if you think about it (much of the Obama Administration was based on making nonsensical declarations – “We can’t just drill our way out of an energy shortage,” etc. – in a somber tone that made them sound like unquestionable fact.) One of the most common is that “the government can’t legislate morality!”
But of course, they do it all the time. We have millions of laws, just to enforce society’s consensus of what’s morally right or wrong. Each law comes with loopholes that someone will try to exploit, so government adds more laws. Plus, police, courts and jails, because some people will always insist on doing the wrong thing anyway. All this to legislate morality.
Self-government requires self-discipline, self-respect, and respect for others. When people don’t follow the accepted standard moral code, government keeps passing new laws to try to force them to, which creates bigger government and more expense for everybody. Maybe the national debt wouldn’t be sky high now if our behavior standards hadn’t sunk so low.
How much do people’s bad personal choices end up costing all the rest of us? You might be surprised at the size of the bill. When I left the governor’s office in Arkansas, we had more than 13,000 inmates in the Department of Corrections. Just keeping them locked up cost taxpayers more than $220 million a year. That’s more than it would have cost to send 13,000 kids to any college in the state, all expenses paid. If every prison inmate had just lived a moral life and stayed out of trouble, the taxpayers could have enjoyed a $220 million tax cut. The money might have been used to improve roads and services that benefit everyone.
From the left, I’d always hear that we should spend more money on prisoners or else turn more of them loose. From the right, I’d hear that we should lock up more people and eliminate parole while cutting the prison budget. Both were unrealistic. But hardly anyone wanted to talk about the real problem: the lack of morality that led to all those people being locked up in the first place.
And what about juvenile offenders? Every kid placed into our Division of Youth Services cost taxpayers up to $80,000 a year. If they’d all had stable, nurturing homes and been taught to be obedient, responsible and moral, it would’ve saved the taxpayers of just that one state $80 million a year. Imagine how many parks we could have built for all kids to enjoy if we could’ve freed up $80 million a year in the state budget.
A lot of kids get into trouble because of peer pressure. They think breaking the rules makes them look cool to their friends. So, kids, when someone you know starts acting up, instead of rewarding them with your admiration, please tell them instead, “That’s not cool! Thanks for costing us our parks and turning our generation into tax s***es, jerk!”
Hey, as long as kids are going to be vulnerable to peer pressure, why not use its power for good?
Jul 5, 2018 16:42:18 #
It may be true that the government cannot legislate morality. But it can legislate immorality.
Trump is using a divide and conquer strategy to gain power. To some of his followers he employs LBJ’s famous, fact-checked, statement that much of his base follows:
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pocket for you.”
As one observer noted, “One of the secrets of his [LBJ’s] success was the ability to speak the racially insensitive language of his fellow Southerners. He understood them. He understood their reluctance and in some cases downright refusal to tear down the walls of racial segregation. He knew r****m from the inside, and he knew well the role the rich and powerful played in promulgating it.”
Certainly not everyone who v**ed for Trump did so because of racial animosity; there were other very legitimate reasons to v**e against Hillary and therefore for Trump.. But that substantial part of Trump's base that will follow him no matter how much damage he does to them and to their economics do so because he has convinced them that people of color or Muslims are their enemy.
Trump is using a divide and conquer strategy to gain power. To some of his followers he employs LBJ’s famous, fact-checked, statement that much of his base follows:
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pocket for you.”
As one observer noted, “One of the secrets of his [LBJ’s] success was the ability to speak the racially insensitive language of his fellow Southerners. He understood them. He understood their reluctance and in some cases downright refusal to tear down the walls of racial segregation. He knew r****m from the inside, and he knew well the role the rich and powerful played in promulgating it.”
Certainly not everyone who v**ed for Trump did so because of racial animosity; there were other very legitimate reasons to v**e against Hillary and therefore for Trump.. But that substantial part of Trump's base that will follow him no matter how much damage he does to them and to their economics do so because he has convinced them that people of color or Muslims are their enemy.
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