not just compassion?

Some of today’s money blandishments – unemployment compensation, food stamps, general welfare vouchers – are not just about compassion. They also are about keeping the 99 percent from confronting the 1 percent. We’re buying off people who might otherwise get very unruly.

Coxey’s huge army of the unemployed marched on D.C. in 1894 and almost brought down the government. The Bonus Army march of veterans in 1932 required troops to put it down.

Now, as we know from the Watts and Detroit riots, it doesn’t take much to get cities burning.

-- Bob Jones, September 12, 2012

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Entitlements -- including Social Security, Medicare and safety net programs such as Medicaid and food stamps -- don't just benefit the poor and unemployed. More than 90% of the benefits go toward working families, the disabled and the elderly. And more than half of all entitlement spending helps middle class Americans.

In 2010, those age 65 and older collected 53% of the dollars, while the non-elderly disabled received 20%, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning group. And folks in working families collected 18%.

As for income levels, those in the middle -- earning between $30,000 and $120,000 -- received 58% of all entitlement dollars in 2010.

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Just call me old-fashioned, or even that nasty “C” word conservative, in my thinking. I’m of the same era as Bob Jones and marvel that I could have grown up with such a different perspective on life. I grew up believing that you actually wanted to gain success in life, gained through your own hard work, and through that success, wealth and perhaps even community status. It was not considered to be something so abominable to become a solid business owner and/or to prosper from that business. If you failed at an endeavor, that failure was yours, not to be blamed on someone or something else. You took responsibility for you and yours.

I find most entitlement programs are based on political points rather than need – I live in a low income area and I see many folks working hard to survive. At the same time, I go into a local grocery store and see a young, seeming able-bodied young lady, gold bracelets up to her elbow, three children under the age of 8 and paying for a cart full of high-priced groceries with an EBT card, while her “boyfriend” brings the SUV around to pick them all up. I, meanwhile, am waiting my turn with a package of hot dogs and a can of beans because that’s what our budget allows this week. No complaints, we like canned beans, but simply an observation.

Nancy Calhoun, Waianae