If they will not work, let them starve! 2 Thessalonians 3:10

Qualifier. Before I fully vent my views on the subject at hand, you should know that there is one glaring exception to my conclusion, Veterans who were injured defending our country. Such men and women deserve disability income above and beyond the rate they'd command in the civilian work force. Families of such patriots are equally deserving, especially when their loved ones die in combat.

BUT the rest of you should get a job! Yesterday I was eating lunch at McDonalds. I inadvertently eavesdropped on a conversation at a table next to mine. I say eavesdropped, yet the incredibly loud volume of the participants' voices as well as the attempt of the grossest offender to bring me into the conversation by staring at me while I was trying to read my paper tells me that he, at least, wanted me to hear every word. Here's the general subject matter. No one would hire this highly qualified fry cook/fast food restaurant manager. Scratch that, several restaurants had offered him a job, but the gall of them to not pay him more than minimum wage!

The last prospective employer even took him out to lunch at a nice restaurant. Alas, he was lured in by that man's kindness only to be stabbed in the heart with a minimum wage job offer.

This was the point in the conversation where I wanted to participate. The reason I wanted to participate, however, has more to do with the prelude to this so-called travesty. All three people at the table were complaining about how long it took the government to mail them their welfare/disability checks. That's right. These people were blowing YOUR money on fast food at McDonalds and at least one was unwilling to take an entry-level job at minimum wage.

By the way, they thought minimum wage was $6.00 an hour, so I suspect that none of them had been employed for many years. Lovely.

Here's the philosophy our grandparents lived out in their lives, as paraphrased by Zig Ziglar, "If you will do more than what you're paid to do, eventually you'll be paid more for what you do." Maybe this is why none of my law student classmates slept for more than 6 hours a day and spent all their waking hours when not in class in their study cubicles at the library, and doctors work 100-plus hours a week during their residencies while being compensated less than $30k a year. Slackers would consider these pretty crappy internships and would hold out for more. Future doctors and lawyers pay their dues, get it over with, and generate six-figure incomes (or more) after doing their time. (I'm still working my way up there--Obama's screwed up policies knocked me down a peg or two.) And those top 1%ers? I bet few work less than 100 hours a week. It takes a lot of time to oppress the poor, for goodness sakes!

I think the complainer who refused to take the minimum wage job offers was the son of the other two people at the table. Each time the younger one would lodge a complaint, his elders would say, "that's right," or "you shouldn't have to take a job like that." If I am right and they were his parents, shame on them. I see why he has that attitude. If not, why are they hanging out with him? I didn't hear them offer a hand, or share the gospel, so Christian charity wasn't the motivation. And they certainly weren't giving him the kind of encouragement he really needed. "Take the damn job! Show them you're worth more than minimum wage, dummy!"

The slacker attitude exhibited by these three strangers is epidemic in America, at all income levels. We read about it everyday. Professionals who once made hundreds of thousands a year are holding out for 6, 12 months, or even a few years for that opportunity that fits their experience. In the meantime they are losing their life savings and homes. Eventually, they are out of the work force so long they are unemployable in their professions and wasted time sitting on their arshes that could have been used building up experience in new careers or perhaps getting trained in a new profession. And they were drawing unemployment for years thanks to President Obama and gutless politicians.

Enough is enough. It's time to cure this problem. Here's my humble suggestion. Unemployment should be capped at 50% of the minimum wage or 50% of the last paycheck received by the recipient, whichever is higher, and it should last no more than 6 months lifetime. Period. If you know that your safety net is about to rip open and drop you on the rocks, I suspect you'll get a job...ANY job.