Our view

Surely you’ve felt a little nauseous and angry when you’ve read or heard the reports that Obamacare and its subsidies continue to provide incentives to millions of Americans not to work.

Likewise, it was outrageous to hear Obama spokesman Jay Carney and others say that health-insurance subsidies will now liberate all those people who are stuck in jobs because all they wanted was the company-paid-for health insurance.

Liberate them?

Never mind the fact those numbskulls in Congress have had the choice and freedom for seven decades to change the laws that supposedly chain all those people to their miserable jobs.

If Congress would simply treat health insurance the same for businesses as for individuals — an equally deductible expense or taxable benefit — the shackle around these supposedly enslaved employees’ necks would have been removed.

But rather than reduce the role of the state, Obama and his party opted to go all the way and coerce Americans to buy what’s not good for them nor what they want — Obamacare.

We are now seeing how Obamacare is further destroying the culture that once made America exceptional. That is, a culture that thrived and prospered on the virtues of work, industry and ambition. A culture that emphasized making it on your own and with your families, not today’s culture of dependency. (See: ‘No jobs? No, no skills, no will’ and Walter Williams’ column below).

The outcomes from today’s environment and culture cannot possibly lead to a prosperous outcome. At least not until conditions become so intolerable that we reverse course or destroy ourselves altogether.
If only everyone could see … or listen to Arthur Brooks.

Brooks is president of the American Enterprise Institute, a voice for liberty and free enterprise. A former classical musician, he is one of the most eloquent speakers and writers on work and happiness. No surprise they are intimately connected.

Brooks wrote in December how researchers have determined that we inherit genetically about 48% of our happiness. Another 40% comes from one-off events — a raise, new job, getting married. But this happiness is short lived and out of our control.

The remaining 12% of our happiness, Brooks wrote, is under our control. As he wrote in the New York Times: “Choosing to pursue four basic values of faith, family, community and work is the surest path to happiness.

“Empirical evidence that faith, family and friendships increase happiness and meaning is hardly shocking,” Brooks wrote. But work — a requirement for happiness?

“Along the way, I learned that rewarding work is unbelievably important, and this is emphatically not about money,” Brooks wrote. “Economists find that money makes truly poor people happier insofar as it relieves pressure from everyday life. But … once people reach a little beyond the average middle-class income level, even big financial gains don’t yield much, if any, increases in happiness.

Concludes Brooks: “Work can bring happiness by marrying our passions to our skills, empowering us to create value in our lives and in the lives of others. Franklin D. Roosevelt had it right: ‘Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.’ In other words, the secret to happiness through work is earned success.”

+ No jobs? No, no skills, no will
The Wall Street Journal reported a week ago one in six men (17%) between the ages of 25 and 54 in the United States is out of work — 10.4 million altogether.

More than two-thirds of these men, said the Journal, were not even looking for work.

Now contrast that with information in our sister newspaper, the Business Observer. In a special report on manufacturing in Florida, the Business Observer reported Florida manufacturers are expanding and hiring at a rapid pace.

“The picture is really bright,” said Nancy Stephens, executive director at the Manufacturers Association of Florida.

Stephens said Florida manufacturers currently have 6,000 unfilled jobs. Nationwide, at the end of 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 4 million job openings in the United States.

Why is there such a huge discrepancy between those 10 million men and the number of unfilled jobs?
As Stephens told the Business Observer: “Our biggest challenge is we can’t find enough qualified workers to fill jobs. If we can fill those jobs, we’d be doing much better.”

Talk to any employer, that is the common refrain: They can’t find qualified applicants. But it’s not just the lack of people with the necessary skills. Employers also will tell you they increasingly find a lack of work ethic, the lack of people willing to exert the effort required of a job.

This is noticeably evident among “millenials” — the under-30 generation, the group whose parents raised them to believe you don’t have to try hard to win a trophy. Everyone wins one no matter what.

Or, as is also common today: Why work when the federal government will pay for your food and health care and pay you not to work?