Young People: There is no “FREE STUFF”

In a scam as old as the Garden of Eden, believing the lie of “FREE STUFF” has consequences for those who bite and those who should know better.

Aug 29, 2024

*Accepting a spurious offer without due diligence is foolish and costly.* | AI

FREE COLLEGE!

FREE HOME LOANS!

FREE HEALTHCARE!

You would think that good parents everywhere would have delivered this lesson from Growing Up 101 to their children during their tender years:

“There’s no FREE STUFF!”

Judging by the multitude of young (and old) people at the proverbial FREE STUFF booth in the metaphorical Town Square of Life, apparently not.

So, channeling my inner Anjelah Johnson, “I try to help you!”

If you like my words, share with your friends.

I’ve created a Quiz to determine how well you understand the concept of No FREE STUFF.

No scoring and no shame here. But you should answer the questions for your edification.

Here we go.

Death and Taxes

There’s an old adage: Everything costs something and nobody rides for free. Life’s two iron-clad certainties illustrate the point:

The Government at all levels will tax your income and consumption, and exact “fees” from you for everything else throughout your lifetime;
When you die, a Mortician, Mortuary, and Caterer will extend their hands—to your estate manager, of course;
After you’re gone, the Government, Courts, and Creditors will ensure you pay your “fair share” through probate and trust arrangements;
Although you entered life with nothing, the many “helpful” people you meet along your journey will guarantee you exit with even less.

QUESTION: What would cause you to believe that what Politicians and Political Parties call “FREE” is truly FREE?

College Tuition

Young people, you signed a legally binding loan contract with clear-cut repayment terms. Then you took the money and, hopefully, completed your education and got a job. You should repay your loan according to the contract terms to impress potential employers with your integrity and ethics.

QUESTION: Who should repay your loan: You, or We, The People, who didn’t borrow the money for your college education?

Home Ownership

It’s fashionable today to believe everyone deserves homeownership as part of the mythical American Dream (Equity, and such).

I’ve got news for you.

Most people struggle to attain the status of Homeowner and fail to attain it more than once before reaching the goal. Often it takes years of hard work, diligence, and tenacity to Qualify for a home loan and begin paying for the “privilege” of homeownership.

And here’s the ugly underbelly of the homeownership dream: Some people—many people—will only and always be renters. Or at least for a very long time until their circumstances change.

This presentation by Bob Simpson, former principal of IMARC, to the Illinois Mortgage Bankers Association helps parse reality from fantasy concerning home ownership.

QUESTION: If politicians promise you a FREE, zero-interest loan with terms that cannot support the debt obligation, who pays for that loan?

(Hint: We, The People).

Healthcare

This one is a bit tricky, but not really. If you bear in mind the overarching fiscal truth—there is no FREE STUFF—you’ll understand why Universal (government-managed) “healthcare” is a terrible idea.

In simpler times a trip to the doctor was uncomplicated. You made an appointment, visited the family doctor’s office, received treatment, and wrote a check on your way out the door. No insurance forms, monthly premiums, coinsurance, deductibles, exclusions, or any “systemic improvements” enacted over the past 40 years.

True, one big illness could wipe you out under the old system, so developing an insurance-based catastrophic illness product made sense then and now. What makes no sense is the insurance industry behemoth that consumed and transformed every aspect of “healthcare” provision during our lifetimes.

By design, insurance works well for amortizing possible future calamities like the death of the primary breadwinner or liability from an auto accident. But, insurance is a horrible model for day-to-day healthcare provision and management. The size and scope of the insurance model add layers of complexity and enormous costs to the process, to the detriment of consumers.

Staggering costs for administrative overhead, financial disincentives for doctors and specialists, assembly line patient “care,” and a focus on cost containment—and profitability—by the insurance concerns, are counterintuitive to the basic precept undergirding the doctor-patient relationship—the Hippocratic Oath.

Warning: If the Federal Government becomes the sole manager/provider of “healthcare” in the United States, only the ultra-wealthy will have “good healthcare” (privately obtained, mind you).

QUESTION: Should we trust the Government with our health—based on hollow and deceptive rhetoric about FREE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE—or should we resist that idea, retain the private insurance option, and press lawmakers to free the current system from the tyranny of Big Healthcare, Pharma, and Insurance concerns?

The last word

This Quiz is intended to dislodge from your mind any silliness regarding the receipt of FREE STUFF for the balance of your time on earth. It should serve to inoculate you against the cunning deceit of those who make specious promises while counting on your naïveté to undo you.

However, if you persist in the belief that some politician—any politician—can deliver on their Edenic seduction regarding FREE STUFF, you will find yourself outside the garden looking in, holding the wormy remnants of “promises” that are rotten to the core.

Remember: #NoFreeStuff