This book offers effective strategies to help erase poverty. It advocates self-reliance, policy reform, and cultural awareness. Accountability is required from all: the middle class, the trust fund babies, and the underprivileged who see themselves as perpetual victims and have fallen into the entitlement trap. True blue prints are offered to rescue people from an economical slump and help them improve their lives, and re-obtain a sense of self-worth.
This book offers effective strategies to help erase poverty. It advocates self-reliance, policy reform, and cultural awareness. Accountability is required from all: the middle class, the trust fund babies, and the underprivileged who see themselves as perpetual victims and have fallen into the entitlement trap. True blue prints are offered to rescue people from an economical slump and help them improve their lives, and re-obtain a sense of self-worth.
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Overview
This book offers effective strategies to help erase poverty. It advocates self-reliance, policy reform, and cultural awareness. Accountability is required from all: the middle class, the trust fund babies, and the underprivileged who see themselves as perpetual victims and have fallen into the entitlement trap. True blue prints are offered to rescue people from an economical slump and help them improve their lives, and re-obtain a sense of self-worth.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781497637504 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Open Road Media |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 248 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Economic Dependency Trap
Breaking Free to Self-Reliance
By Calvin Helin
OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA
Copyright © 2011 Calvin HelinAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4976-3750-4
CHAPTER 1
DEFINING DEPENDENCY
I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of [pornographic] material I understand to be embraced ... but I know it when I see it. —JUSTICE POTTER STEWART
In 1964, while trying to explain "hard-core" pornography Justice Potter Stewart referred to the difficulty he had in defining obscenity. The concept of dependency is similarly hard to grasp.
HEALTHY DEPENDENCY
Like the body that is made up of different limbs and organs, all moral creatures must depend on each other to exist.
—PROVERB
Fundamentally, humans are social beings. To some extent, people need to depend on one another. Albert Einstein said, "A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give the same measure as I have received." We arrive in the world and survive with some measure of dependence on others. We benefit continuously from the effort of others. Consequently, it should not be surprising that the greatest source of happiness is the intimate social connections we inherit, forge, and sculpt in our families and cultivate among our friends.
Such observations about the social nature of people and what makes them happy are now being confirmed by scientific research. In his book Social Intelligence, psychologist Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., discusses the latest findings in biology, brain science, and social neuroscience relating to how human beings are "wired to connect." The most fundamental discovery is that we are designed for sociability and constantly engage in a "neural ballet" connecting brain to brain with those around us. Such research emphasizes the importance of social interconnectedness and the crucial role healthy social relations play in our happiness.
In certain situations, being dependent can be natural and healthy, reinforcing all-important social bonds. For example, a young child depends on parents, just as spouses, family members, and good friends depend on one another. Individuals in communities, and in the indigenous world tribal members, also depend on one another. This kind of dependence, or interdependence, is healthy and should be encouraged. Indeed, healthy social interdependence is the basis upon which civilizations are founded.
This is exactly the kind of healthy mutual dependency that my father, on his deathbed, suggested should exist within our family. As his stomach cancer exacted its horrific toll, he called my brothers and me to his bedside and asked us to make a solemn pledge. His dying wish was that, in whatever circumstances our family found itself after his death, we "stick together and always support one another." Sticking together, a goal of great value, sounds simple but can sometimes be very difficult to accomplish. Soon after my father's death I began to see how this principle became the most crucial element of tribal survival and, by contrast, to see as well the utterly ruinous condition of economic dependency that had taken its place.
Similarly, emotional dependency, though often denigrated, can also be healthy in moderation. One source suggests that healthy emotional dependency "means blending intimacy and autonomy, and feeling good—not guilty—about asking for help when you need it. It's a way of reaching out to others that actually allows you to grow stronger, and connect more deeply with people around you."
To maintain health and the potential for growth and a fulfilling life, it is important to distinguish between circumstances in which dependency provides valuable social support and situations when it undermines our mental health, our sense of self-worth, and our feelings of integrity.
Key Points
1. Are all forms of dependency unhealthy?
Some kinds of dependency are healthy, natural, and necessary.
2. When does dependency become a problem?
When dependency starts to undermine our mental health, dignity, and spirituality, it becomes unhealthy.
CHAPTER 2UNHEALTHY DEPENDENCY
If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small, we will find at the root of it some unhealthy dependency and its consequent unhealthy demand. —BILL W.
Independence and self-responsibility are thought to be indispensable to psychological well-being, essential to personal fulfillment, basic to moral life, and the foundations of social cooperation. One writer contends that the essence of independence is the practice of thinking for yourself and reflecting critically on the values and beliefs offered by others— in other words, living by your own critical thinking and judgments. Self-responsibility is the practice of providing for your own needs rather than depending on another individual or entity to provide for them. Ultimately, the kind of person you end up being and the inner strength you will possess depend on those matters for which you are prepared to take responsibility. If you want to be successful, you must take responsibility for achieving success.
When you put yourself in a position of dependency, you can harm yourself psychologically in ways most people do not understand. Many forms of dependency can cause untold harm to individuals, their families, and their communities. In seeking to understand such forms of unhealthy dependency, it is useful to first examine some definitions.
Dependency is defined as a "state of relying on or being controlled by someone or something else." Dependence is described as a "lack of independence or self-sufficiency." Combining these two notions results in the implication that the more dependent you are, the less self-sufficient you are and the less control you exercise over your life (see figure 2.1). Because of these dangers, it is important to recognize the signs of unhealthy dependency and to offset this development with healthy forms of dependency.
As mentioned in chapter 1, one kind of dependency is emotional. In relation to emotional dependency, Fritz Perls, originator of Gestalt Therapy, noted: "Our dependency makes slaves out of us, especially if this dependency is a dependency of our self-esteem. If you need encouragement, pats on the back from everybody, then you make everybody your judge."
According to psychotherapist Nathaniel Branden, people who depend for their ultimate authority on the opinions or views of others, as opposed to objective reality, share the following key traits:
* They lack a firm, unyielding concept of existence, facts, and reality apart from the judgments, beliefs, opinions, and feelings of others.
* They experience a fundamental sense of helplessness and powerlessness, a profound fear of other people, and an implicit belief that other people control reality.
* Their self-esteem hinges on responses of significant others.
An article about emotional dependency explains further that a balance must be found between debilitating and healthy dependency:
At one extreme is an ingrained, helpless need to be cared for—a stubborn problem that psychiatrists diagnose as dependent personality disorder. In milder forms, dependency can come across as an annoying clinginess. But it can also be a protective warmth that cements romantic relationships in times of stress. It is the way people manage dependent urges, researchers are finding, that determines the effect of needy behavior on relationships....
A tug-of-war between headstrong independence and needy vulnerability is visible as early as infancy. In so-called attachment studies, young children or primates who are confident in their mother's affections tend to be confident when exploring an unfamiliar room or meeting a stranger. Those who are less secure often cling to their mothers in new situations, noticeably fearful.
"This is an absolutely fundamental dynamic that underlies all of our interpersonal relations, as well as psychiatric diagnoses," said Dr. Sydney Blatt, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Yale University.
Angelyn Miller, M.A., author of The Enabler, notes:
It is the differences in the way individuals respond to hard times that separate those who are simply sharing in an interdependent society from those who are dependent.
People who use their disability, grief or adversity as an excuse to avoid doing what they can are emotionally dependent, and emotional dependence can be even more deadly than economic dependence.
Emotional dependents will grasp past or present, real or imagined disappointments as a justification for inaction or pseudoaction. They lay claim to some unwinnable battle and then assert that they could go out into the world and slay dragons if it weren't for everything that is conspiring against them. As in shadow boxing, their jabs can't connect with anything real or solid. Some people's entire lives revolve around overwhelming and irresolvable problems. They are always involved in some crisis that they can't or are unwilling to resolve. When these people with "irresolvable problems" turn them over to others to handle, and there are willing takers, the cycle of enabling-dependence begins.
ADDICTIONS
Drugs have taught an entire generation of American kids the metric system.
—P.J.O'ROURKE
At times, a psychological dependency also involves a powerful physical component, as in addictions, especially those involving drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. In these cases, the physical dependency results in withdrawal symptoms, a physiological reaction to the sudden absence of the addictive substance, whereas the psychological dependency manifests as the memory of the pleasure or "craving" associated with the addictive substance. For example, a smoker can be physically dependent on nicotine and psychologically dependent on the social aspect of smoking in a group. Because such addictions cause harmful emotional dependency, treatment should entail not only physical therapies but also psychological ones.
Key Points
1. How can you influence the kind of person you will become?
The inner strength you possess in the future will reflect the matters for which you have taken responsibility.
2. Why should unhealthy dependency be avoided?
Because the more dependent you are, the less control you exercise over your life and the less ability you have to be self-sufficient.
3. How can increased dependency best be avoided?
By finding a balance between debilitating and healthy dependency.
4. What forms can unhealthy dependency take?
Emotional, psychological, and economic.
5. Give two examples of unhealthy dependency.
Excessive emotional dependency and addictions involving substance abuse.
6. What is the difference between emotional dependency and an addiction?
An addiction is a physical reliance on something, whereas dependency is psychological.
CHAPTER 3ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY
If you depend on others you will soon go hungry. —NEPALESE PROVERB
The forms that economic dependency takes, as noted in the preface, are: (1) government-to-citizen dependency (the so-called social safety net in the West, corporate welfare and bailouts, and classic Communist ideology); (2) government-to-government dependency (international aid, such as to African governments, transfer payments to Native American tribal governments in North America, and equalization payments in Canada and other federal states); (3) intra-family dependency (between parents and children or other family members); and (4) intra-organizational dependency (between organizations, departments, or people working within them).
Economic dependency occurs as a result of welfare, aid, subsidies, trust funds, allowances, and similar giveaways. Long ago when there was no social safety net, Samuel Johnson declared, "The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependency." During an era in which generous welfare policies and undisciplined spending of disposable wealth have become the norm, a contrary notion applies: the inevitable consequences of dependency are poverty and/or loss of direction and purpose. Paradoxically, this often unrecognized form of economic dependency has been created by the rising wealth of the middle and upper classes.
THE PERILS OF ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY
What you don't want is to reinforce the sense that there is no vision for the future, that the best we can do is help you with the day-to-day stuff.... That's a recipe for long-term dependency on government. It's a recipe for depression.
—WADE HORN
The economic dependency trap ensnares unwitting souls caught in its web woven of promises regarding short-term gain but masking the consequence of long-term pain. In describing the perils of such dependency to South Africans, Nelson Mandela said, "We need to exert ourselves that much more, and break out of the vicious cycle of dependence imposed on us by the financially powerful: those in command of unbridled market power and who dare to fashion the world in their own image."
Similarly, journalist William Greider noted the danger of growing economic dependency, stating: "The U.S. financial position is rapidly deteriorating, due mainly to America's persistent and growing trade deficit. U.S. ambitions to rule the world, in other words, are heavily mortgaged. Like any debtor who borrows more year after year with no plausible way to reverse the trend, a nation sinking deeper into debt enters into an adverse power relationship with its creditors—greater and greater dependency." [emphasis added]
One journalist notes further that such enormous debt recently incurred as a result of the Great Recession "alters international relations, giving much more de facto power to lenders such as China and subtracting it from borrowers such as the United States." This or similar statements possibly emboldened Gao Xiqing, president of the China Investment Corporation, to point out in a recent article that since his country has financed much of the U.S. public and private debt it would behoove America to "be nice to the countries that lend you money." America's oil dependency also demonstrates its vulnerability in adverse power relationships with its unpredictable and sometimes hostile oil suppliers.
Conversely, a lack of economic dependency resulted in America's extraordinary self-reliance and economic might following the two world wars. In World War I, the government raised more than $21.5 billion of the $30 billion required for the war effort from its own population in the form of Liberty Bonds. Over the course of World War II, 85 million Americans purchased over $185 billion in bonds, with taxes covering the remainder of the war's total cost of $304 billion. Self-financing its war effort put America in an enviable economic position when the war ended.
After World War II, America led the world in scientific and technological innovation, especially shipbuilding and aerospace. In 1953, at its post-World War II peak, manufacturing generated 28.3 percent of the U.S. economy, and by 1965 it accounted for 53 percent. By midcentury, while industrial capacity in almost every continental European country and in Japan had been destroyed, America had 60 percent of the world's manufacturing output.
Historian Christopher J. Tassava, Ph.D., concluded that in the post-World War II era, the United States "possessed an economy which was larger and richer than any other in the world [and] American leaders determined to make the United States the center of the postwar world economy." He added, "As economic historian Alan Milward writes, 'By 1945 the foundations of the United States' economic domination over the next quarter of a century had been secured.'" It is surprising that out of this enviable position a system of excessive economic dependency has so quickly emerged.
WORDS OF WARNING
As an individual becomes an adult, a psychological milestone of independence is supposed to occur. This is a time when children separate from their parents who cared and provided for them; they strike out on their own, choose a career or job, form new social relationships, and pursue their generational values. Our welfare-minded society enables the dependency of many of its adult citizens, leaving them in a perpetual state of adolescence, unable to survive without sacrificing others to meet their endless needs.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Economic Dependency Trap by Calvin Helin. Copyright © 2011 Calvin Helin. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface,Introduction,
PART I. DEPENDENCY VERSUS SELF-RELIANCE,
1. Defining Dependency,
2. Unhealthy Dependency,
3. Economic Dependency,
4. Defining Self-Reliance,
PART II. THE SHIFT TO GOVERNMENT RELIANCE,
5. From Self-Reliance to Government Reliance,
6. A Deal with the Devil?,
PART III. FORMS OF ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY,
7. Economic Dependency in Middle-Class Families,
8. Economic Dependency in Wealthy Families,
9. Economic Dependency Caused by Governments,
10. Economic Dependency Rooted in Organizations,
PART IV. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY,
11. General Impacts of Economic Dependency,
12. Impact on the Family,
13. The Culture of Entitlement and Attitude of Expectancy,
14. Why Welfare Doesn't Work,
15. The Value of Work,
16. External Expressions of Economic Dependency,
PART V. THE EMPOWERMENT MINDSET,
17. The Power of You,
18. The Real Role of Money,
19. Beginning Anew Requires Action,
20. Fear and Failure,
21. Effort and Expectations,
22. Facing Reality and Taking Ownership,
23. No Health, No Wealth,
24. The Power of Values and Attitudes,
25. Adopting Winning Skills,
26. From Mind to Matter,
27. Thinking Makes It So,
28. Developing a Strategic Plan,
PART VI. GOVERNMENT REFORMS TO PREVENT ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY,
29. Modifying Government-to-Citizen Economic Dependency,
30. The Returns on Property Ownership,
31. The Education Dividend,
32. Government-to-Government Dependency Relief,
Conclusion,
Notes,
Bibliography,