America has changed since 1961

I don't know that I've ever been particularly enlightened by Ronald Reagan, but this 1961 speech against Medicare is kind of interesting.

Not so much for its specific message. Conservatives fought as hard as they could to stop Medicare, and as recently as 1995 with Newt Gingrich, they were working to privatize it and gut it. That's no secret to anyone.

But what fascinates me so much about this speech is how much America has changed.

Before the 1930s, there was no government welfare in America. And even in 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt came along with the New Deal, he made a point that its programs were strictly temporary and designed to get people back on their feet.

Folks believed then that any sort of permanent welfare would simply destroy people's incentive to go out and work for themselves.

There was a feeling that we were different, that Americans were more self-sufficient and would be ashamed to have to be supported by their neighbors.

That's pretty much changed. Ask even conservatives if they would do without Medicare and they're likely to look strangely at you. Ask farmers if they would go without subsidies, or bankers without last year's bailout, or the millions of folks out of work without unemployment insurance.

Not a chance.

I worked without interruption for 29 years, only to find myself out of work in January 2008. I have been collecting unemployment ever since, and I have been paid at a higher rate than I earned until the fifth of my seven career stops.

When you consider taxes, I would have to make at least $14-15 an hour to make any more money, and even then I would be working 40 hours a week for a net gain of about $20.

Should I be ashamed? I've had numerous friends say no, that I paid into it for years and I ought to get it back. But my mother, who grew up in that different America, says that money should be for the truly needy and I should be working, even if it's for less money.

Have we changed?

You bet we have.