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Editorial
January 6, 1936
The Times News
Hendersonville, Henderson County, North Carolina
What is this article about?
This editorial critiques proposals for state-provided old age insurance, arguing that individuals, including poor Southern African Americans, can and should prepare privately through companies or churches, rather than burdening taxpayers or attributing divine powers to government.
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OCR Quality
98%
Excellent
Full Text
IS THE STATE DIVINE?
The rational and healthy man can provide his own old age insurance. Facilities for it are abundant. Efficiently managed companies are hundreds. Even the poor negroes of the South have been insuring themselves the last fifty years. Perhaps the insurance has often cost them too much, but the negroes have not been without forethought.
Shall Americans be told that old age is a period for which they should not prepare while they are young and strong?
Are they to be taught that it is right and wise for a man of middle age and his family to spend on comforts and luxuries every penny that they can lay hold of, that it is the business of the state, which is to say the taxpayers still earning, to support them when they are old?
The sick, the lame, the halt, require help and they receive it. The question is whether or not the able-bodied should shift, while they are still able-bodied, the burdens of old age to other people's shoulders.
The second question is whether the state is better fitted to be the insuring company, or agency, than are the private agencies. Should the churches, for example, abandon the insuring machinery by which they care for aged clergymen?
If the state, or government, is to provide insurance for old age, why private insurance?
Or have the Americans arrived at the conclusion that all private initiative and enterprise are failures? Do they now, as a last and forlorn hope, attribute to the political state divine powers to manage their concerns and save them from perishing?
Charleston News and Courier.
The rational and healthy man can provide his own old age insurance. Facilities for it are abundant. Efficiently managed companies are hundreds. Even the poor negroes of the South have been insuring themselves the last fifty years. Perhaps the insurance has often cost them too much, but the negroes have not been without forethought.
Shall Americans be told that old age is a period for which they should not prepare while they are young and strong?
Are they to be taught that it is right and wise for a man of middle age and his family to spend on comforts and luxuries every penny that they can lay hold of, that it is the business of the state, which is to say the taxpayers still earning, to support them when they are old?
The sick, the lame, the halt, require help and they receive it. The question is whether or not the able-bodied should shift, while they are still able-bodied, the burdens of old age to other people's shoulders.
The second question is whether the state is better fitted to be the insuring company, or agency, than are the private agencies. Should the churches, for example, abandon the insuring machinery by which they care for aged clergymen?
If the state, or government, is to provide insurance for old age, why private insurance?
Or have the Americans arrived at the conclusion that all private initiative and enterprise are failures? Do they now, as a last and forlorn hope, attribute to the political state divine powers to manage their concerns and save them from perishing?
Charleston News and Courier.
What sub-type of article is it?
Economic Policy
Social Reform
Moral Or Religious
What keywords are associated?
Old Age Insurance
State Intervention
Private Enterprise
Personal Responsibility
Taxpayer Burden
Divine Powers
Social Security
What entities or persons were involved?
State
Private Insurance Companies
Churches
Negroes Of The South
Americans
Editorial Details
Primary Topic
Opposition To State Provided Old Age Insurance
Stance / Tone
Strongly Against State Intervention In Old Age Support, Pro Private Initiative
Key Figures
State
Private Insurance Companies
Churches
Negroes Of The South
Americans
Key Arguments
Rational Individuals Can Provide Their Own Old Age Insurance Through Abundant Private Facilities.
Even Poor Southern Negroes Have Insured Themselves For Decades.
Americans Should Prepare For Old Age While Young, Not Shift Burdens To Taxpayers.
Able Bodied Should Not Defer Old Age Burdens To Others.
State Is Not Better Fitted Than Private Agencies For Insurance.
Churches Should Not Abandon Their Insurance For Aged Clergymen.
Private Insurance Remains Viable If State Provides It.
Private Initiative And Enterprise Are Not Failures; Attributing Divine Powers To State Is Misguided.