Ramble: Government Involvement

Ron’s Ramblings: Government Involvement

I was watching the news last night and I saw them interview people that kept wanting the government to do things for them. Federal, Provincial and Municipal. When did it become acceptable to the average person to have the government look after them?

I am from the generation that took care of ourselves and didn’t expect or want the government to do anything for us.

Somewhere along the way, the idea of personal responsibility seems to have slipped out of fashion. I grew up in a time when you didn’t wait for someone else to fix your problems — you rolled up your sleeves and handled what needed handling. If you fell down, you got up. If you were short on money, you tightened your belt. If something broke, you figured out how to repair it or you did without for a while.

Now I watch people on the news talking as if the government is supposed to be their parent, their employer, their safety net, and their problem‑solver all rolled into one. And I find myself wondering when that shift happened. When did “we’ll manage” turn into “someone should do something for us”?

Maybe it’s the pace of modern life. Maybe it’s the way everything feels bigger, more complicated, more out of our hands. Or maybe we’ve just forgotten that communities — real communities — used to look after each other long before any level of government stepped in.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t get help when they truly need it. Life can knock the wind out of anyone. But there’s a difference between needing a hand and expecting one as a matter of course. Somewhere in the middle, we’ve lost the pride that comes from standing on our own two feet.

Anyway, that’s where my mind wandered last night. Just an old guy watching the news and shaking his head a little, wondering how we drifted so far from the values that shaped us.