Turning the American Dream Into an American Nightmare

President Biden has finally acknowledged what business owners have been saying for months—the government is incentivizing Americans to not work.

For the first time in our history, at least 22 states are ending increased unemployment benefits in order to encourage people to get back out there and start working again.

Having to compel so many Americans to return to work is completely contrary to our American DNA.

America was founded on the principles of hard work and self-reliance.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence were by and large lawyers, merchants, farmers, and physicians. They worked for a living, with many having multiple professions and entrepreneurial ventures.

These principles were also seen in the area of innovation.

Unlike the European patent systems of the time, which gave preference to the aristocracy and elite, the American patent laws were merit-based, allowing anyone to submit inventions and innovations. For example, in 1834, even when slavery plagued the nation, an African American inventor named Henry Blair was awarded a patent for the corn planter.

It’s no wonder then that America led the way in the 19th century, with inventions like the steamboat, the sewing machine, the telegraph, and the telephone. And this relentless drive of the American spirit continued into the next century as well. Henry Ford developed not only the first mass-produced automobile, but the assembly line process that changed industries across the globe. John Rockefeller, who grew up in poverty, became the first billionaire.

But when the Great Depression devastated the nation, we started down a new path.

Promising that the government would save Americans from economic calamity, President Franklin Roosevelt launched the New Deal. Yet the research by Amity Shlaes, for her comprehensive history of the Great Depression, The Forgotten Man, shows that FDR’s New Deal schemes, with heavy-handed government interventionism, did not end the Great Depression but actually prolonged it.

Three decades later President Johnson gave Americans the Great Society, with the goal of ending poverty through government programs. Just as was seen with FDR’s empty promises, the Great Society fell far short of its goals. Author and historian Theodore White wrote, "By the early 1970's it was clear that the Liberal-inspired programs of the Great Society had failed in the cities; they had been based on a political misreading of how those cities functioned, and what communities in those cities required for community survival.”

Now, President Joe Biden—who reportedly sees himself as the next FDR—plans to massively expand the government's role in society once again. First with the recently passed, and so-called “COVID relief bill”, and now with the upcoming, and also so-called, American Jobs Plan.

We are now being told that paying people to stay home is ok.

Never mind the fact that it hurts more than just the overall economy. It also hurts the individual, as research shows that the unemployed are twice as likely to seek help for depression. In addition, the longer an individual stays unemployed, the harder it is for them to reenter the workforce. This far-reaching welfare agenda is another body blow to our foundation and what made America great.

But it's even more than that, it’s a blow against who we are as people.

The founding fathers were not inventing a new idea when they built a nation that prioritized hard work and self-reliance. Rather, they were following the Judeo-Christian principles, what has also been called the Puritan work ethic. After visiting America in 1830 the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville said, “I think I can see the whole destiny of America contained in the first Puritan who landed on those shores.”

This work ethic was directly derived from the fourth commandment God gave to Moses— “six days you shall work...but the seventh day is the Sabbath”.

The Puritans, inspired by the Jewish people before them, understood that God’s command was more than just a law to follow. It was communicating the understanding that mankind’s God-given mandate was to create and build, to harness nature, and improve his environment.

For over 240 years, Americans have taken this mandate seriously, innovating, creating, and using our ingenuity to build the most exceptional country in history. The Puritan work ethic is still with us. A recent report from Gallup shows the average full-time worker in the U.S. works 47 hours a week—a number that is well above the average in Western Europe—and is in fact one of the highest numbers in the world.

It should come as no surprise that while the United States consists of only 4.5% of the world’s population, it makes up to almost 25% of the world’s GDP.

Leading a conga line of failed political experiments, The Biden Administration is the latest group of bureaucrats who believe they can create the perfect society with more government guidance. This approach has failed every time it is tried—and will fail again.

We must reject this premise and agenda. Americans have a divine mandate to fulfill, a mandate that no politician or bureaucrat can do on our behalf.

It’s when we begin to fully understand our own God-given responsibility that we can preserve the "Greatest Place on Earth," and keep our light shining bright to a dark world.