No more Free Lunch

Decades ago, in the time of my parents and their parents before them, generation after generation, there was pride in working and attaining the American Dream from the sweat of your own efforts and labor. Today, it is nothing but government entitlements. You want a house? No problem. The government will help you get one. Shady banks will help you get one. Shady mortgage brokers will make sure you get one. And the list goes on.

We just got a government grant of $23 million that will help with that very same thing. You no longer have to work and save money for that down payment. Oh no. You will be given it. The government will even help you with mortgage payments. You need a sprinkler system? Just ask our CRA. They used to give money away for some guy who just asked for it--had his hand out. They have eliminated that program for now—no money.

And this has been the problem here in Lake Worth…no pride in homeownership and making it way too easy for people to walk away from their obligations. You can’t pay your electricity bill? No problem. If you read the budget, you will notice that there is right under $9 million owed to us for year 2009 alone in utility bills. The total that has been uncollected and probably written off is slightly over $35 million dollars for years 2005 through 2009. So, some don’t feel any obligation to pay for the service they received while you and I pay for it in our bills. They walk away feeling no guilt that someone(s) paying their tab. Past city management has failed us too.

This entire mentality is so prevalent it has ruined this City. 55% of the housing is owner occupied and 45% are rentals. Commentary in the budget suggests this is because the average median household income is $38,709. I discount that as a reason. Owning a home is cheaper than paying rent. Housing has also been inexpensive in Lake Worth and has always been affordable. Anyone can find something to buy that fits his budget. You can blame our water restrictions on why your yard looks like a complete mess if you want to...there is always someone to blame rather than yourself.

So, we get back to the entitlement mentality…Socialism. It has started at the top and this is why this country is in so much trouble. We borrow money to stay afloat and then give $2 billion to Brazil for oil exploration. We give Israel roughly 1 trillion dollars per year. This equates to $187,000 per hour for the last 59 years. Our priorities are askew.

Elected officials are not addressing the give-aways and the impact. On page 24 of the Lake Worth Budget you can see that we rank right up there in residents seeking free programs and those waiting for free social services. The illegals get free breakfast and lunch at The Mentoring Center. We continue to encourage the hand-out mentality and people breaking the law. What makes us believe that we owe people anything but the basic services?

Here in Lake Worth, we have to protect those services that are vital and get out of those that are not essential and stop the give-aways. If people can’t afford something, should that be the City of Lake Worth’s problem? We must have cooperation of the Unions to get to where we need to get.

How do people get their pride back? They need to stop believing they are the victims and we need to insist that there is no more free lunch. They need to start believing that citizenship is a privilege, not a right. Laws must be followed with no exception. Stop the entitlements.

We have a new City Manager who has presented a bold new Budget. Let’s take our City back. We must change the way we have been doing business.