2006 Interim (Essay #2)
July 10, 2006

ENTITLEMENTS

Intriguing word. Sounds like something old, from the beginning of law. Most entitlements are recent. We snarl at the word. We talk like someone else did this to us. It is fascinating to discover we join together to initiate entitlements, and we do it regularly.

Certain benefits become the rights of citizens and/or residents. The Declaration of Independence promised "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." We were in trouble right there. The pursuit of happiness could involve benefits, unless you are a cynic who stresses the word "pursuit" (only). "Pursuit of happiness" was their expression of that hope that every person should be able to live a productive life. (It is an excellent definition of happiness.)

Dr. Henry Rosemont, a constitutional scholar, provides a simple frame for our thoughts on rights. Life and liberty are "First Generation" rights. Basic, pure. Food, clothing, shelter, health and education are examples of "Second Generation" rights. The first generation rights mean little if left as generalities. Second generation gives specific content to life and liberty. Here comes the crunch. Granting the right to food, for example, limits the liberty of those with enough food. Entitlements chip at freedom while adding to it.

Entitlements are a fascinating part of our rights. In the first "complete" Nebraska constitution, every person living in the state between the ages of five and twenty one received an entitlement to "free instruction in the common schools of this state." It is the most expensive sentence in the Nebraska Constitution. The right to "free instruction" is not limited to natives, or citizens, or rich, or smart, or those able to walk or see or hear or talk, or those who speak English, or whose parents are employed -- "every person"! Entitlement.

When the Nebraska territory was organized, residents were not entitled to aid if they were destitute, or to medical care, or to education, or to free burial if they died. Caring neighbors could help out with food or a shovel, but it was not an entitlement. If the family breadwinner died the survivors were told to go back to where they came from. Neighbors helped dig a grave and load the wagon.

The first entitlement I find in my study of local history is free burial by the county. No questions were asked. You could be saint or sinner, an infant or a tired old derelict. The "rugged individual" who cared not what happens to anyone else and who was completely self-sufficient is a myth. Once upon a time he could try to live alone on the frontier. He had a "right" to lay claim to some land, but that had so many restrictions and pitfalls it was not a clear title to anything. He moved when the neighbors got too close. However, he eventually died and the county guaranteed his burial.

The first good example of a more typical entitlement was shelter. As with all entitlements, residents initiated it. In Douglas County, commissioners bought a "Poor Farm" after about ten years of avoidance of the public clamor, so that desperate or ill persons could have a roof overhead, a stove for heat, and a garden for food.

Then the residents, and especially religious folk and physicians who found they could not provide needed health care voluntarily, said it was time for a hospital. County commissioners built one on the poor farm. The hospital entitlement has evolved to a law that emergency room treatment cannot be denied due to a person's lack of funds.

Somewhere along the line we agreed that clean air is an entitlement. Free choice, which is never free except in self-serving statements, is now trumped for owners of restaurants. As it is for owners of smokestacks. Clean water. Pure foods. Dependable prescription drugs. Mail service. Phone availability. Access to legal services. Care for neglected children. They are entitlements, each initiated by residents and a government.

It is instructive to note that the most noisy advocates against rising taxes do not ever suggest a change that would clearly reduce taxes big time: throw grandma out of the rest home. The cost for low income elderly once was a family and county obligation. It is now 75% of Medicaid costs. Care for low income elderly is an example of widely accepted (expensive!) entitlements.

Forty years ago we chose not to help the family with a mentally retarded child. We ignored the constitution, which requires free instruction. We said, "They [family members] have a problem." Now, training of developmentally or mentally disabled children is an entitlement that no one questions -- even though it is very costly. The quaint constitutional term "instruction" became a far broader concept than to "teach."

The health care we provide for low income children is better than is available to insured adults. As background, children's health care is a wise use of public dollars and becomes an investment that is helpful to the economic health of the state. There are good reasons for providing guaranteed services. Here we are protecting ourselves, but we created a new entitlement.

Children should have transportation to public school. The elderly should not be denied drugs, or transportation to the doctor's office. Any one of us has the right to medical care in an emergency room (if there is room) and the county is to pay the bill if no one else does. Granted, much of this is for our emotional protection. We do not want to see a story in the paper that some poor soul wriggled to a lonely death on the sidewalk for lack of a prescription or lack of a doctor to set a bleeding broken bone. Out of embarrassment as much as compassion, we agreed to an entitlement.

How to pay for entitlements is an ongoing question which legislators face continuously, but is beside the point here. We have agreed to entitlements and, as the definition of the word implies, they will be provided -- however they may be supported in public policy. We grouse, but pay. In Sweden, by contrast, paying for entitlements is not a matter of contention. The public supports the policy that those who are able to pay taxes have an obligation to desperate persons.

A newscast in June reported a local leader's statement that a high school grad who is bright and dedicated is "entitled" to college or trade school training. I don't think so. Are we headed that way?

This is far from complete. What other entitlements are established? Which are coming? What do you think? Will the public ever come to the point of willingly paying for costs of entitlements without acting like we do not want them? Let me know what you think and I will do a followup.

In summary, we are always slow to say it, but we have agreed that every resident has entitlements. The force behind entitlements is public agreement, but the reasons vary from showing respect to desperate persons to protecting ourselves from future heavy costs. We have given up our "pure" freedom for the broader freedom of a safe and healthy community -- the freedom to pursue life and happiness.

Cheers,

Lowen