Opinion on Opinion
I’m not one to write letters to editors, but I saw this article today in The Hindu of India (I’ve been in the country for about a week now) and I had to send my two cents to the publication. In the online version of the article it’s clearly in the Op-Ed section but that wasn’t made clear in the newspaper…it had the appearance of a news article more than an op-ed. I’ll probably never know if my letter gets printed since I’m leaving the country tonight, but I thought I’d share my opinion of the article here for posterity:
Dear Editor,
I’d like to make the statement that Narayan Lakshman’s article on July 15th, 2011, “A compromise too far”, should not be regarded as representative of the beliefs of the American people. As a US citizen that often travels to India for business, I enjoy seeing the an outside perspective on US politics and policies. But when I see an article such as this which shows the author’s clear bias, I want to be sure that those reading this material understand that Mr. Lakshman’s words are definitively his opinion.
By referring to the heart of the debt negotiations as a “gun to the head of the poor, the elderly and the infirm”, the author certainly tugs at the heart strings of the Indian people, but the fact is that the entitlement programs the US government put in place in the 20th century have spiralled out of control and are a weight to middle-class Americans concerned about their own well-being. Social Security and Medicare have become behemoths, allowing people to rely on the government for income while forcibly taking money from other citizens that work hard for their money. Remeber that forced charity is not charity at all. The American dream is alive and well in the US in the hearts and minds of those that work for their living, but entitlement programs such as these are slowly chipping away at that dream by siphoning off people’s income as quickly as they receive it.
The beauty of the American dream is the opportunity to make one’s life whatever one wants; that the individual is in control of their destiny. Entitlement programs, while they appear on the surface to support the poor and helpless, really work to increase the dependency of the populace on the government. Without these programs the people are challenged to support themselves throughout life, and to plan for the ups and downs of economies intelligently. Lack of these entitlements would encourage entrepreneurship, problem-solving and independence rather than dependence.
I have a great respect for the intelligence and analytical nature of the Indian people, and so I hope that the readers of your newspaper will take the time to do their own research, and understand the cost and benefits of these entitlement programs, before automatically agreeing with my or Mr. Lakshman’s perspective.
Sincerely,
Andrew Morse
California, USA