THE RESCUE GENERATION
Bailouts send the wrong message to those already unwilling to take responsibility for their situation.

By Ruben Navarrette, Jr.

It’s one of the greatest threats facing the United States of America, and yet you don’t hear much about it.
It could devastate the U.S. economy and reverse the American trajectory so that future generations fall short of the standard of living enjoyed by their parents. It touches on just about every domestic policy issue, from immigration reform to the mortgage crisis to improving education to saving Social Security. Yet, our leaders—instead of tackling the problem—enable it by doing the wrong things and sending the wrong messages.
I’m talking about the sense of entitlement that many Americans carry around—about what they think they deserve and the kind of life they should be living. They’re so sure of what should come their way that if things don’t go according to their plan, they waste no time in blaming someone or something else.
Americans blame illegal immigrants for taking jobs that Americans aren’t interested in doing. They blame engineers from India and computer programmers from China for making them compete for jobs they took for granted. They blame government, or the political parties, or the public schools.
In fact, the only people that they never get around to blaming are themselves. The key to getting a good night’s sleep even when you’re not getting ahead is to not take responsibility for past mistakes, bad decisions or missed opportunities.
Dropped out of high school? No worries. Never finished college? Not a problem. Lost the job because you wouldn’t leave your beloved hometown? Totally understandable.
Besides, you know whose fault it is? It’s foreign workers. It’s government. It’s immigrants who keep wages low. A generation ago, they might have said: “It’s the system.” And everyone knows, you can’t fight the system.
So, you call for protection—from trade, from immigrants, from competition, from the world. And sooner or later, a shameless politician hungry for votes will show up and offer it.
That’s where the enabling comes in. Sometimes it takes the form of a giveaway intended to win favor and buy votes. Other times, it’s a free pass that tells people they don’t have to be accountable for bad decisions or reckless behavior.
You’ll find both in the mortgage crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people bought homes they couldn’t afford from greedy and unscrupulous lenders who lent money to people who never should have qualified for loans. But, miraculously, they did. The catch? Scams like interest-only loans and adjustable rate mortgages—ticking time bombs that were bound to go off. And they did. Interest rates jumped. Monthly payments increased by as much as 50 percent. And a lot of people lost their home. Many just packed up their things and walked away. Never mind that they signed a contract.
So what is government’s response? President Bush called for a freeze of interest rates on sub-prime loans. Two Democrats who want his job went even further. Hillary Clinton proposed a moratorium on foreclosures for 90 days and a freezing of interest rates for five years. Barack Obama said he would establish a $10 billion “home foreclosure prevention fund” to help people make their house payments.
There is more nanny government in the prescription for an ailing economy. The Bush Administration recently proposed a $150 million stimulus package to jumpstart the economy. Congress eagerly went along. There wasn’t much debate, but what little there was had to do with whether the package should include an extension of unemployment benefits and an increase in food stamps or be limited to rebate checks for individuals.
No one bothered to ask if this kind of economic bailout wasn’t sending the wrong message to a new generation. And it’s young people who often seem most susceptible to the entitlement mentality. According to a recent survey of workers in their twenties, young Americans expect not just jobs that pay good salaries but that also provide ample amount of vacation time so that they may enjoy their riches. They interview for jobs, acting as if they’re doing employers a favor by even considering working for their company instead of thinking that the employer is doing them a favor by considering them for a job. And, if they get the job, well, how long before they apply for the vice presidency?
This is precisely the contingent that needs to be taught to be self-sufficient and held accountable for its actions. It needs to learn that there is no such thing as entitlement, and that biggest obstacles we face in life are self-imposed. And it needs to learn that placing blame for a problem isn’t the same as fixing it.
The last thing it needs is to be taught that government will always be there to rescue you when things get rough.
Sure. Ask the people of New Orleans if they still believe that.

Ruben Navarrette, Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune, a nationally syndicated columnist with The Washington Post Writers Group, and a regular contributor of commentary to CNN.com and USA TODAY.