The new mayor of New York City is not at all bashful about his promises of free stuff to residents.

After all, what better way to get votes? He and other Marxist mayors across the country appear quite confident that they will not only be successful in their giveaways but will be received as messiahs to the downtrodden. Mayor Mamdani won the election largely based on his promises of taxing the rich in order to give away free child-care, bus passes, college tuition and more.

Every thinking American ought to be stunned and concerned that so many Americans are apparently fooled by such schemes. 

To be clear, we conservatives have no problem with people gifting family or friends however they like from their own wealth; and we believe that inheritances of any size ought to be passed on without additional taxes.

Our issue is with the involuntary seizure of one person’s wealth to transfer it to another.

The Democrat Party is now so closely aligned with Marxism that ideas long considered radically anti-American, immoral, and enslaving appear frighteningly close to enactment. Guaranteed minimum income is actually being discussed as a viable option by many.

I understand: “Free” sounds great! Too good to be true! And as usual, it is. Other than the air you breathe, virtually everything comes at a cost, and someone must pay for it. The only question is, who? And the problem with all the giveaways goes far beyond the issue of who pays for them. Making life’s essentials free carries significant baggage.

Let’s consider it:

First, the idea of “something for nothing” has always been understood to be a bad idea. It plays to our greed, envy, and laziness. It creates an entitlement culture where people believe they are “owed” something merely for existing. How ironic that at the very moment we see rabble in the streets crying “No Kings,” many of their number are also demanding free stuff!

Is it not royalty that has long lived on “free stuff” from the masses?

Monarchies and Marxism are not so different after all.

Living on freebees undermines the nation’s traditional work ethic. All honest work is honorable and beneficial far beyond the dollars earned. God calls us to work, noting that “it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth,” (Lamentations 3:27). John Smith, elected leader of the Jamestown colony in 1608, discovered that some of the colonists apparently felt manual labor beneath them or were more interested in searching for gold and treasure.

He imposed a II Thessalonians 3:10 “he who does not work shall not eat” ethic on the colony and no one starved while he led them! A hungry stomach is a powerful motivator!

The Left’s assertion that it is humiliating to require people to work for a paycheck or government benefit is a destructive lie. The opposite is true. Receiving unearned income (not talking about capital gains) often produces some level of guilt in the recipient and creates resentment and bitterness on the part of the one paying for it, thus causing division among citizens.

You are doing no one a favor when you give people a livable wage disconnected from productive labor.

Appropriate personal charity does not divide the donor and the recipient but rather bonds them in friendship.

Hard work is beneficial to one’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. There is no debate over the health risks associated with sitting around for hours playing games on one’s phone. Getting something for nothing, as the Left promotes is like a sugar diet. Candy, soda pop, and cookies are appealing to children, but maturity teaches that such is detrimental. And anyone who believes that when the communists gain power they will allow citizens to receive a pay check without working is woefully ignorant of how communism works in reality!

Work stimulates the mind and contributes to one’s sense of accomplishment; and making a positive contribution to society in general and to others around you makes good sense. It is not at all surprising that at the same time that we hear of young people wasting away their lives in their parents’ basements there is also a major mental health crisis raging nationwide.

We are all born with an inclination to take the easy way; so, it is important to resist that urge personally and culturally, and we must demand that every able-bodied American work for what they earn. Children under a certain age, of course, cannot provide for themselves, and as we grow older work gradually becomes difficult or impossible. Yet we know that seniors do much better when they find work that is suitable for their capabilities and continue in it as long as they are able and desire to do so.

It is in the individual’s best interest, and that of society as well.

A footnote regarding child labor. We are well aware of the abuse of children through the ages as young people were often forced into difficult work very young. But we should not have escaped that ditch only to fall into the other. While a five-year-old should not be working ten- or twelve-hour days, he can learn to help pick up his toys. And by the time he is ten, he is greatly benefitted by having a list of chores whereby he learns responsibility and begins to carry part of his own weight.

I had a daily paper route at ten, and that responsibility brought me a great sense of satisfaction. My older brother and I were apparently the only children in our grades who had savings accounts!

Property rights are essential to liberty and life itself as one who cannot control his own wealth and property cannot secure his own life.

Unduly taxing those who have property and wealth is nothing more than legalized theft and is therefore immoral and jeopardizes all other liberties. 

If three people, one idle, the second working occasionally, and the third working very hard all receive the same income, we know what will happen. At some point the two who work will quit or reduce their output in exasperation, leaving them all in poverty. Such is the reality in every socialist country and is only “remedied” by coercion, and that will be the situation in America if the Left succeeds.

Common sense suggests that you become vulnerable if you allow yourself to become dependent on the government for your most fundamental needs. As someone has said,

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away.”

It is impossible to conclude anything other than that the Left is doing what it is doing to gain more power. It is certainly not for the good of the citizens. Whenever you hear “free” or “guaranteed income” you must ask, “what’s the catch?” There is always a catch! As they say,

“there is no such thing as a free lunch.” 

To paraphrase Scripture,

“The recipient is slave to the giver.”

Once a nation is under the thumb of communism there is virtually no way of escape. The government has all the power. You, the citizens, have none. They have taken your possessions, your wealth, your choices, and your weapons. You are a slave with no way out.

In all of this I am reminded of a personal experience from my high school Senior days. The Physics instructor informed us that the only thing necessary for an A in the class was to show up. I found the experiments and lessons interesting and did not pay much attention to what the other students were doing.

In my yearbook that year another student wrote,

“to the only guy who did anything in Physics. . . .”

Sad! Socialism creates a heavy downward pressure on the quality of life of all citizens, except, of course the “glorious leaders” who live like kings!

Don’t be fooled! Free! Free! Free! Is a really bad idea period. It dishonors God and His word and destroys the lives of people as we were created to be productive.

The ideas of free stuff and a guaranteed minimum income need to go the way of the buggy whip and the Dodo bird.