The Dangers of a Safety Net

 

I write in a hurry. I get an idea, bang it out, and post it. I try to re-read it later, and perhaps edit it a bit, but it’s hard for me, because I don’t like most of what I write. I enjoy writing. Largely because it forces me to focus on something other than my immediate concerns, so it relaxes me. But it never comes out as good as what I had in my head. So I get frustrated, post whatever I’ve got, and move on with my life.

Every once in awhile, though, I’ll write something that I think is pretty good. And sometimes I’ll think, “You know, I should do this for a living! I enjoy it, and I’m pretty good at it! It’ll be fun!” Then I read something from Victor Davis Hansen. Or Kevin Williamson. Or, God help me, Thomas Sowell. And I decide to keep my day job. Which is good for me, because I’d go broke trying to write for a living. It’s good for society in general, too, because I’m a much better doctor than I am a writer. I’m more use to more people doing what I’m good at. Whether I select myself out by understanding my weaknesses, or whether I starve as a writer and am forced into another occupation, everyone wins when I lose. This became very clear to me at this weekend’s volleyball tournament.

Two of my three daughters are freakazoid athletes. They always moved differently from other kids – they looked unusually graceful, fast, and agile, even when just running around the playground with the other 6-year olds. They’re just different. The older one is now captain of one of the best basketball teams in the country (they hope to make the Sweet Sixteen this year), and the younger one (“Linda”) is still in high school but has already signed to play volleyball at another major Division I university.

“Linda” grew up playing basketball like her older sister, but switched to volleyball a couple of years ago. She was already being recruited by Div I basketball programs as a freshman in high school, and I asked her, “Are you really sure about this volleyball thing?” But she wanted to switch. She figured she could always get a basketball scholarship, even if she didn’t play much (…she’s not arrogant, but she’s just accustomed to being really, unusually good at athletics…), so she thought, what the heck.

There is a girl on her volleyball team this year (“Kelci”) who has been playing volleyball her whole life. She’s a good athlete, and she’s really good at volleyball. But she’s slower, shorter, less agile, and not as athletic as Linda, so the college coaches ignore her, and drool over Linda. This is upsetting to Kelci, and understandably so. She’s a great volleyball player, and she wants to play college volleyball. But Linda, who’s still learning how to play the sport, is the one getting the scholarship offers. That would upset me, too.

But if Kelci left these travel team leagues to go play major Div I volleyball, she’d get blown off the court by all the freakazoid athletes. They’re all like that, at that level. She’d have no chance. It wouldn’t be fair.

But that won’t happen. Just like me and my writing, she’ll end up doing something she’s better at than volleyball. It’s not that she’s bad at volleyball. She’s really very good at it. But there are others better, so perhaps she should apply herself to other endeavors. Thus, she’s more likely to find her way into something she could be truly great at. It’s a painful process, but it generally works.

Those who believe in a robust “safety net” for those who struggle in society see themselves as saving people from the pain I describe above, like in Kelci’s athletic setbacks, or my intellectual ones. You can see their point. Wouldn’t it be nice to protect people from the pain of failure?

Well, yes it would, but again, that pain can be instructive, and very helpful. You remove that pain at the risk of dooming somebody to a life of stasis and removing any hope they have of improving their situation. You can’t succeed if you’re not allowed to fail.

I don’t think anyone would suggest that a society as wealthy as ours should have no safety net, and I’m certainly endorsing no such thing.

But I think that we should use government-funded entitlements with great caution. They can benefit certain people at certain times, but it comes at a great cost. That cost may not be immediately obvious, but it’s enormous, and it’s unavoidable. You can’t get the benefits without paying the price.

But the benefits are obvious, and the price is subtle.

How many stupid decisions do people make, in how many different realms, because of that basic problem? The benefits are obvious, and the price is subtle. So why not? Right?

Thus, progressives tend to win elections, and the government tends to grow.

After all, the benefits are obvious.


I should probably try to smooth this up a bit, and clarify my thinking. Maybe add a humorous anecdote. Or a clever quote from a famous philosopher.

Eh. Whatever. I’ll just post it.

Time to hit the sack.

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  1. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    That sports pyramid is tough for kids and especially parents to cope with. Luckily my daughter made it to the top collegiately. However when offered the chance for a pro soccer tryout she decided to get on with her life’s work.

    • #1
  2. JennaStocker Member
    JennaStocker
    @JennaStocker

    People think providing, or expanding a safety net is a sort of act of compassion or sparing from the pain of failure, when it’s actually doing the opposite. When we take away the experience of failure, we take away the opportunity for emotional growth and character building. We can’t know the depths of our strength if we never run-up against obstacles to test us.

    I dunno, I think you’re a mighty fine writer from what I’ve read-and I can’t speak to your physician abilities, so my vote goes to writer!

    • #2
  3. CJ Inactive
    CJ
    @cjherod

    I would suggest that a society as wealthy as ours should have no government-run safety net. A Christian society will have voluntarily run safety nets.

    • #3
  4. DonG (skeptic) Coolidge
    DonG (skeptic)
    @DonG

    There is a dignity in work and being self-sufficient.  Those are important things.  Individual charity is also important.  Helping others willfully is good for the soul.  A big, fat government crowds out willful charity and that is a shame.  In addition to the immediate effects impacts of welfare, there are long-term drawbacks to creating a society with a dependency culture. 

    • #4
  5. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Dr. Bastiat: Wouldn’t it be nice to protect people from the pain of failure?

    If we go back to the original meaning of “nice,” then yes, it is very nice.

    • #5
  6. CJ Inactive
    CJ
    @cjherod

    We should extend your volleyball analogy to other aspects of public life. Suppose the State decides that everyone can benefit from the virtues of volleyball (the teamwork, the discipline, the exercise, etc.), so that all children from the age of 5 to 17 are required by law to attend mandatory volleyball camps. In their infinite wisdom, the Central Planners have determined that all children have the potential to excel at volleyball. That will be the theory, anyway. But in practice, things will go in a different direction. At first, all children will be thrown together in the general population according to birth year, but pretty quickly your freakazoid athlete daughters will be identified and pulled out for the elite “alpha” squad. The Kelci’s of the world will probably do just fine amongst the rest of their peers on the regular teams. Children on the lower tail of the athleticism bell curve will receive IVP’s (Individualized Volleyball Plans) with modified game rules, and will be labelled “Special Ath.” (Incidentally, explicit mention of the athleticism bell curve will be verboten.) For over a decade, all children will be subjected to the message that their self-worth, their place is the social hierarchy, is inextricably tied to how well they can bump, set, and spike. They will be told that their continued success upon leaving the mandatory volleyball camps will depend on their willingness to subject themselves to mountains of debt for any number of Advanced Volleyball Camps.

    Sounds like a pretty grotesque system, doesn’t it?

    • #6
  7. Old Buckeye Inactive
    Old Buckeye
    @OldBuckeye

    Safety nets take away the incentive to succeed. They diminish the choices that the user can make (e.g., exceeding the limits of earnings negates getting the welfare check). Government-run safety nets are controlled by a department/bureau, in other words, an entity–nothing compassionate about that.

    • #7
  8. OmegaPaladin Moderator
    OmegaPaladin
    @OmegaPaladin

    I take issue with the entire premise of this post.   Please consider what a literal “safety net” is?  Here is an example:

    The safety net is an emergency measure, that keeps a fall from being fatal.  You can see them on construction projects.   It’s not permanent, and you generally don’t want to be there.

    When most people talk about a safety net, this is what they mean – something to make sure losing a job or having a sudden huge expense is not the end of the world, while dealing with the people who really can’t take care of themselves.    It’s something you default to when you have no other choice.

    I don’t see this as really relevant to Kelci and Dr. Bastiat.   What would the safety net actually do for them, hypothetically?   If anything, I  think the story points out that we should have more places to show our hobby-level talents, like park league sports or Ricochet.  I acted a lot in high school, and even directed a play.  I’d love to do it again, but there’s no place for the person who’s just in it for fun.

    Entitlements are a problem deeper than just avoidance of pain.  I’m pretty sure neither Kelci nor Dr. Bastiat would be happy to just receive the position without actually working for it.  As DonG noted, there is a dignity in work, and most people want to get off the safety net and get back to work on the bridge.  There’s also a social stigma toward being lazy and not working.  If you have a strong work ethic, the safety net is not going to trap you.   When you have people being raised to find the best way onto benefits and rejecting work, your safety net becomes a spider’s web.  We’ve lost a lot of the social disapproval and pressure that would discourage this.

    • #8
  9. Jim McConnell Member
    Jim McConnell
    @JimMcConnell

    Doc, doesn’t much of what you say regarding government apply equally well to parenting? I believe parents owe their children the opportunity to fail (at least before they reach the age that failures have substantial consequences).

    • #9
  10. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Dr. Bastiat:

    There is a girl on her volleyball team this year (“Kelci”) who has been playing volleyball her whole life. She’s a good athlete, and she’s really good at volleyball. But she’s slower, shorter, less agile, and not as athletic as Linda, so the college coaches ignore her, and drool over Linda. This is upsetting to Kelci, and understandably so. She a great volleyball player, and she wants to play college volleyball. But Linda, who’s still learning how to play the sport, is the one getting the scholarship offers. That would upset me, too.

    But if Kelci left these travel team leagues to go play major Div I volleyball, she’d get blown off the court by all the freakazoid athletes. They’re all like that, at that level. She’d have no chance. It wouldn’t be fair. 

    Kelci probably thinks of herself as a failute, but she’s not.  No matter how good you are, there’s always someone out there who’s better – you just haven’t run into them yet.  North Dakota State has a dominant record of football national championships in Division II, now the FCS.  Yet they know they probably couldn’t beat LSU if the two had faced off after their respective championship games.

    • #10
  11. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    CJ (View Comment):

    I would suggest that a society as wealthy as ours should have no government-run safety net. A Christian society will have voluntarily run safety nets.

     

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):

    The safety net is an emergency measure, that keeps a fall from being fatal. You can see them on construction projects. It’s not permanent, and you generally don’t want to be there.

    When most people talk about a safety net, this is what they mean – something to make sure losing a job or having a sudden huge expense is not the end of the world

     

    The brilliant post that was in my head (not the one that ended up on my laptop) was an effort to explore the different impacts of charity vs entitlements.  I found that paragraph difficult to clarify, I got frustrated, and I dumped it.

    But your point is fair, Omega.  In theory, a true safety net can be helpful.

    My only point is that in practice, it can be extremely harmful as well.  As you acknowledge:

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):
    When you have people being raised to find the best way onto benefits and rejecting work, your safety net becomes a spider’s web.

    So in theory, I agree with you.  But in practice, this has not worked out as well as we planned.  I simply argue that both the benefits and the costs should be carefully considered when making decisions about our “safety net.”  We’re causing harm.  But we’re only discussing the benefits.

    It’s hard to fix a problem if we don’t can’t even discuss it.

    So our politics move ever further left.  

    • #11
  12. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    There is a dignity in work and being self-sufficient. Those are important things. Individual charity is also important. Helping others willfully is good for the soul. A big, fat government crowds out willful charity and that is a shame. In addition to the immediate effects impacts of welfare, there are long-term drawbacks to creating a society with a dependency culture.

    Exactly true.

    • #12
  13. Stubbs Member
    Stubbs
    @Stubbs

    Safety nets become spider webs (great metaphor Omegapaladin) when we care more about feelings than character.  It’s ok for Kelci to mope a while, cry on her dad’s shoulder (a proper safety net), and emote some frustration.  When Kelci, prompted by her loving parents, gets up, dries her tears, and overcomes her disappointment to find success in life, is a massive benefit to society.  A Kelci who is surrounded by ‘nice’ people who excessively validate her feelings and allow her to live in her sorrow without pushing her forward (a spider’s web), either passively or actively encourage her feelings to grow into a self righteous bitterness that will eventually poison Kelci, and turn her into a cancer on her society.

    One of the reasons I feel athletics is one of the best ways to develop character in kids is because this drama happens all the time and on all levels of play.  Even if Linda becomes the best volleyball player in the world, someday she will run into a scenario where she isn’t any more, and she must face the same question that Kelci has to face now.  

     

    • #13
  14. Old Buckeye Inactive
    Old Buckeye
    @OldBuckeye

    Based on the definition of a safety net given by Omega Paladin, I would alter my comment to say safety nets that become entitlements are an issue, not a true safety net offered once and done. 

    • #14
  15. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Stad (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat:

    There is a girl on her volleyball team this year (“Kelci”) who has been playing volleyball her whole life. She’s a good athlete, and she’s really good at volleyball. But she’s slower, shorter, less agile, and not as athletic as Linda, so the college coaches ignore her, and drool over Linda. This is upsetting to Kelci, and understandably so. She a great volleyball player, and she wants to play college volleyball. But Linda, who’s still learning how to play the sport, is the one getting the scholarship offers. That would upset me, too.

    But if Kelci left these travel team leagues to go play major Div I volleyball, she’d get blown off the court by all the freakazoid athletes. They’re all like that, at that level. She’d have no chance. It wouldn’t be fair.

    Kelci probably thinks of herself as a failute, but she’s not. No matter how good you are, there’s always someone out there who’s better – you just haven’t run into them yet. North Dakota State has a dominant record of football national championships in Division II, now the FCS. Yet they know they probably couldn’t beat LSU if the two had faced off after their respective championship games.

    Exactly.  She’s really a very good volleyball player, and has excelled in the leagues she plays in.  But she’s reached a point where perhaps she might want to consider moving on to something else.  Sort of like me.  It’s not that I can’t write.  It’s just that there are people better at it than me.  So I do what I’m really good at.  And society benefits.

    The free market works.  Unless it is distorted by outside pressures, like an excessively dominant safety net, for example.

    • #15
  16. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    So I do what I’m really good at. And society benefits.

    The free market works.

    Amen.

    • #16
  17. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):
    I don’t see this as really relevant to Kelci and Dr. Bastiat. What would the safety net actually do for them, hypothetically?

    You’re right, of course, but I was just using us as a metaphor.  I didn’t mean to suggest that a volleyball player who doesn’t get offered a Div I full ride should be eligible for Medicaid or food stamps.

    I meant to illustrate that if you lose your job because you’re a lousy electrician, it’s not the end of the world.  It will likely end up being a positive for you, and for society in general.  Perhaps you should be doing something else.  Again, it’s a painful process.  But we reduce that pain at our peril.  

    As I said, some degree of safety net makes sense to me.  But we must remain cognizant of the harm we are doing, in addition to the benefit we are providing.

    Sorry I didn’t explain myself very well.

    • #17
  18. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    I understand the criticism that “safety net,” as generally understood, is a far cry from the kind of affirmative action that would enable you, Doc, to become a professional writer (small lift), or me to become a musician (impossible even in every alternate universe).

    But it does seem natural that, as we become wealthier and safer, further removed from the kinds of life-threatening misfortune that people so frequently suffered even a few score years ago, our sense of what suffering we will tolerate changes. I’ve walked through some of the poorest parts of Asia and seen impoverishment we wouldn’t stand for a moment here. (Having said that, I now have to pause and wonder if that’s true: there is deep deprivation and despair in America as well, though it’s confined to dysfunctional places that I will probably never see and certainly never visit. So it isn’t so much that we won’t stand it, as that we won’t stand seeing it.)

    To some degree, the safety net is for us, to spare us having to endure the detritus of broken and ruined lives as we go about our own. There’s nothing wrong with that, in principle.

    Anyway, I agree with you that there’s a cost associated with generosity (however broadly defined), both to the giver and to the receiver. And I agree with those who observe that charity is superior to government transfers in almost every instance and in almost every respect. What we do today with our “entitlements” programs is probably about the worst way to deal with the problems those programs are intended to solve.

    Great post, as usual.

    • #18
  19. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    I have a good friend at West Point who was a three-time NCAA boxing champion.  He was a phenomenon.  He was offered the opportunity to leave the academy for a year to train for and participate in the ’88 Olympics (his answer was “no, I didn’t come here to be a boxer, and if I leave here for a year, there’s no way I’ll be able to make myself come back”).

    Needless to say, he could beat me like a drum.

    I loved my four years of boxing, even though I’d never get recruited by the NCAA or the Olympic Committee.  All the lessons the sport taught me have stood me in good stead.

    • #19
  20. Tedley Member
    Tedley
    @Tedley

    Kelci sounds kind of like me when I was her age, although in a completely different hobby.  I played French Horn for ten years starting in Junior HS, and kept playing through college, albeit on one of the “junior varsity” bands that played once a week and didn’t require tryouts.  I played in many types of groups: concert bands, marching bands, pep bands, orchestras, quartets, and other mixed instrument groups.  I probably could have pursued it as a major in college, but a Navy scholarship drove me in a different direction.  I did it for fun, although I also played a few times for pay, once for a wedding and a couple of times to fill gaps for other groups lacking a competent horn player.  I had some talent, some skill and accumulated some experience, although I wasn’t a natural and didn’t really have the drive to be number one.  I’m not any different from the vast number of other people who pursued a hobby in school, only to get busy with something completely different as an adult.  It was a great hobby, it gave me a lot of great experiences, introduced me to my first serious girlfriend, and I still have a finely-tuned ear (although my embouchure is gone for good). 

    Hopefully Kelci will realize sooner than later that this is the way life is for those of us who aren’t the complete package.  That said, from what you say, it sounds like she has perseverance, and that’s a quality that will carry her farther than volleyball or a safety net could. 

    • #20
  21. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    But I think that we should use government-funded entitlements with great caution. They can benefit certain people at certain times, but it comes at a great cost. That cost may not be immediately obvious, but it’s enormous, and it’s unavoidable. You can’t get the benefits without paying the price.

    I love that you didn’t outright say we don’t need one. My idea of safety net is that it should be used in a flux time – if there is a sudden surge in unemployment, what factors led to it? Are they the result of changing technology? That seems like a good reason to launch the safety net. Was it a shift in moving industry out of the country?

    One person failing is very different than large numbers failing. Large numbers imply a societal or economic failure – education, economic or tax policy.

    Once unemployment rates stabilize, it’s time to scale off the safety net. Lower it – those not as dependent on it move on. When that influx to the labor market stabilizes, scale it back again. By the end of the scale back, only the most desperate should be subsisting on a very limited safety net.

    But that safety net should only exist where there’s something huge that changed that affected more than just a few bad workers getting the due of bad work.

    Only when the safety net is gone or on bare bones and the market is clamoring for workers should the immigration spigot be turned on. Tight employment conditions raise wages, increase innovation, and encourage domestic investment in education and job training <- all things that diminish the need for a safety net.

    • #21
  22. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Doctor – you and I have similar writing thoughts…..I hit on an idea, punch it out and post it. I go to bed thinking I sounded like an idiot and I’m so embarrassed.  I edit at least a dozen times after I post – so I’m not that good at it. You are much better than me.  I’m not quite a senior yet, and still trying to figure out what I’m good at.

    You hit the nail on the head. Some just have natural talents, and then they find out when they swim with bigger fish that they still have the talents, but the other fish are better. They are still doing what they love. There is so much pressure, probably more on school-age kids, to be the best or don’t do it. How about doing something you love just to do it? You can be so proud of your girls. The Lori Loughlin kids of the world will never derive the joy your kids are getting from doing what they love.

    On that note, the entitlement message couldn’t be louder if it was delivered with a bullhorn.  That is especially true of those that love the freebies (as in extended dependency when the need is no longer there) and have little incentive to change….

    • #22
  23. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):
    Doctor – you and I have similar writing thoughts…..I hit on an idea, punch it out and post it. I go to bed thinking I sounded like an idiot and I’m so embarrassed. I edit at least a dozen times after I post – so I’m not that good at it.

    Wait.  You mean there’s folks who are sober enough to go to bed remembering what they hit “publish” on?  Inconceivable!

    • #23
  24. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):
    Doctor – you and I have similar writing thoughts…..I hit on an idea, punch it out and post it. I go to bed thinking I sounded like an idiot and I’m so embarrassed. I edit at least a dozen times after I post – so I’m not that good at it.

    Wait. You mean there’s folks who are sober enough to go to bed remembering what they hit “publish” on? Inconceivable!

    I should try that sometime…

    • #24
  25. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Stubbs (View Comment):
    One of the reasons I feel athletics is one of the best ways to develop character in kids is because this drama happens all the time and on all levels of play. Even if Linda becomes the best volleyball player in the world, someday she will run into a scenario where she isn’t any more, and she must face the same question that Kelci has to face now.

    Brilliant point.

    • #25
  26. BastiatJunior Member
    BastiatJunior
    @BastiatJunior

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):
    Every once in awhile, though, I’ll write something that I think is pretty good. And sometimes I’ll think, “You know, I should do this for a living! I enjoy it, and I’m pretty good at it! It’ll be fun!” Then I read something from Victor Davis Hansen. Or Kevin Williamson. Or, God help me, Thomas Sowell. And I decide to keep my day job.

    The writers here at Ricochet are enough to do that to me.  And you’re one of them.

    • #26
  27. Ilan Levine Member
    Ilan Levine
    @IlanLevine

    Maybe Kelci is one of the few lucky kids out there?  She worked hard at a sport that she loves, but she is learning very early on that enthusiasm and hard work, while necessary for success in any pursuit are not sufficient for some vocations. I learned early in my university swimming career that I was never going to be better than 5th rate on a team that had Olympians. I kept at it for self-improvement, but I focused my thoughts of the future on other goals. She will probably factor in her own abilities and be a bit more analytical about her next choice of vocation. 

    • #27
  28. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Stad (View Comment):
    No matter how good you are, there’s always someone out there who’s better – you just haven’t run into them yet.

    This is why I dislike sports. They are a zero sum game. Everyone cannot win.

    In life, this is not true. Since there are countless possibilities and options, each person can find their own niche. It does not matter that someone else might be better than I am at what I do – that person is doing their thing, and I am doing mine. 

    In doctoring, it is also the case: you don’t need to be the best. There may not even be any way to agree on what makes a “best” doctor. But there are plenty of patients, and they need doctoring. Simple Comparative Advantage.

    • #28
  29. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):
    As I said, some degree of safety net makes sense to me. But we must remain cognizant of the harm we are doing, in addition to the benefit we are providing.

    Safety nets are best provided by family, friends, voluntary organizations (like churches), and communities. Those nets can best assess need and opportunities.

    Government safety nets should be limited to the very last net near the ground before “splat”. Basic miserable sustenance should be the target for such a net.

    • #29
  30. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    iWe (View Comment):
    There may not even be any way to agree on what makes a “best” doctor.

    I am the best doctor.  Simple.  Surely we can agree on obvious statements of fact like that.

    It’s amazing I can stay humble despite my brilliance…

    • #30
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