The TV in the Section 8 housing unit across the street is bigger than mine.

What’s wrong with this 52” LCD picture? How did we get here? To me, the problems stem from the breakdown of the traditional family, consummated by expanded consumer credit abuse by those who, at least by the government’s standards, are too poor to pay their own rent without assistance – yet manage to squeeze enough out of the budget to afford a giant TV.

The problem is 60 years in the making. Let’s go back to the post-WWII era. Amidst the greased lightening and Hormel dinners lurked socioeconomic turmoil – the shadows cast by prosperity could not hide our present nightmare for long.

With the end of WWII and the five years of rationing that the war had necessitated, came a new selfishness – a sense of self-entitlement grown from the seeds of exuberance for life that follows all major wars. Joy and a pat-on-the-back mentality eventually turned into a self-centeredness that ate away at the importance of family in our lives. While some of this can be attributed to the loss of our best and brightest, most of it can be attributed to a fundamental change in parenting – adults spending time having fun after years of fighting and paying less attention to their children.

All of this came to head in the decades to follow. The self-centeredness and joys newly found in a consumer culture for individuals took a turn for the radical in the 1960s and 70s as the ‘free love’ wave washed (well, probably didn’t wash) over the baby boomers. With a no-consequences-for-your-actions mantra and a bong hit for good measure, the children that were neglected by the weary, post-war parenting began to have their own children, who were even less supervised. Our society became defined by egoism and greed.

The country raised one fist to protest the federal government’s intrusion into Vietnam and its civil-rights trampling policies – and used the other to bum change off Uncle Sam. Such schizophrenia did not take long to develop into the full-on psychotic spending behavior we see today.

Why? Because of the family.

What does the family have to do with Section 8, big screen TVs, our post-WWII euphoria and hippies?

In each decade after WWII, the family became less and less of a priority. It was replaced by “personal choice” and self-centered egotism. Happiness is no longer the smiling couple with 2.2 children and a dog: family is no longer the important unit. The path leading from crumbling family units to large televisions for the poor requires less of a leap of logic than one might think.

When the family is strong, there is less need for help from the outside because all problems are dealt with by the family. Within the family, grandma is cared for by a granddaughter; an orphaned nephew is taken care of by an aunt; a poor uncle is cared for by his sister; and a sickly son is cared for by his mother. Families tend to each other because family members make the unit a higher priority than themselves. Predictably, when no one makes the family a priority because everyone is caring for themselves, the entire structure breaks down.

When the family is weak, who cares for the children, the elderly, the sick and the broke nephew (c’mon, everyone has one)? The taxpayers. Liberals argue that government entitlement programs are necessary because families are no longer strong. In other words, the Government has replaced the family: it is our parents, our children, and our siblings. It is now our community – it is what we contribute to through FICA and the income tax. It will take care of us and our parents later in life. We don’t have to worry about it anymore.

In the decades since WWII, the entitlement mentality has taken root in America — and with it, an entrenched selfishness combined with the assumption that the government will bail us out, like our families used to do. At least that’s what those old black-and-white movies on the giant TV at home seem to show…right?

Besides, who needs fiscal responsibility when you “deserve” things? And if you can’t afford it, you use your credit card. And if you can’t pay your credit card, it’s OK, because the government will bail you out, and if not, you can just declare bankruptcy and have your creditors bail you out instead (and pass those expenses on to the people who do pay their bills).

And now here I stand, dog leash in hand, able to see into the window of the Section 8 housing across the street, where they have a way bigger TV than I do. But somehow, I have a feeling that I will be paying for that TV and the room it occupies very soon, without ever knowing whether that is indeed my broke nephew.

Shauna Moser is a regular contributor to The D.C. Writeup.

Related Articles

1. An American Kakistocracy
2. A Dark Period in American Higher Education
3. Swine Flu Is Not Going to Kill Your Family
4. Don’t look to Washington, Look to Yourself
5. The Myth of Propriety in American Politics