… is from page 258 of Thomas Sowell’s 1999 book, Barbarians Inside the Gates:
Bad as it is financially for the federal government to be saddled with the runaway costs of “entitlement” programs, it is far worse for the society as a whole to be saddled with millions of people with the “entitlement” mentality and all the social problems that go with it.
DBx: Yep.
And those today with this malignant entitlement mentality are not only people who want what are conventionally thought of as government handouts – handouts such as welfare checks, “free” health care, and student-loan “forgiveness.” Also suffering this malignant entitlement mentality are those owners of American firms and their workers who demand protection from foreign competition. These people believe that they are entitled to a large chunk of their fellow Americans’ incomes – so entitled that, if their fellow Americans choose to buy more imports than these entitled owners and workers think proper, these owners and workers demand that the government force their fellow Americans to change the ways in which they spend their incomes.
It cannot be said too often that, except for the rare legitimate exception of national defense, protectionism is selfish thuggery masquerading as selfless patriotism. It is embraced only by the greedy and the economically ignorant.
