A newspaper story several years ago reported about an elementary school teacher who held elections in his class. The students picked their candidates — one little boy competing against one little girl. The little boy stood up before the class and shared his ideas for changes that would improve their lives. The little girl stood up and promised that everyone who voted for her would get ice cream. The little girl won, hands down. Maybe it’s a cute story about 10-year-olds. But it’s far less cute if we consider that the political reality in our country today is not much different. Two-thirds of federal spending, which now takes almost one-fourth of our GDP, are transfer payments. As opposed to federal spending that involves direct payments to individuals or firms — like salaries or purchases made by the Department of Defense — transfer payments are payments that are automatically transferred to one set of citizens out of the federal budget, as well as funds that the federal government transfers to the states. We’re talking about programs such as Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, refundable tax credits, Medicaid, housing, welfare and transit. These are automatic, mandatory transfers, which, as a percent of federal spending, have increased by about a factor of 5 since 1950. Per the House Budget Committee, the percentage of the U.S. population enrolled in Medicaid has increased from 9.3% in 1975 to 24.3% in 2022, getting food stamps from 7.9% in 1975 to 12.4% in 2022, and the earned income tax credit from 2.9% in 1975 to 9.3% in 2021. The oldest and largest of these programs is Social Security. Whenever I convey that Social Security comes under the heading of federal entitlements, I get irate letters from those getting Social Security telling me they worked to get their benefits. But that isn’t the point. The point is most Americans have no choice to be or not be in the program, and once in, everything is automatic — when and how much is paid (although there is some latitude when to start receiving the benefit) — and the benefits received are from taxes paid by others. It is important to appreciate, which most don’t, that these types of transfers were once considered unconstitutional. It was Social Security that changed the game. Taking from Peter to pay Paul was never understood to be a constitutional authority of the federal government. But after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law in 1935, its constitutionality was challenged in the case known as Helvering v. Davis. The court, in that case, found Social Security constitutional in a major expansion of understanding of the “general welfare” clause of the U.S. Constitution — “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes ... and provide for the common Defense and general welfare.” As result of this ruling, a new understanding of “general welfare” gave Congress vast and wide new authority to tax and finance programs, even though those areas are not clearly enumerated in the Constitution as authority of the federal government. Thus, the modern American welfare state was born, and the door was opened for politicians to promise ice cream in exchange for votes and power. It is the main source of the explosion of federal spending, and now federal borrowing. Change is possible. I began my career working on welfare reform. With reform of AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and of TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the percentage of the population on welfare dropped from 5.2% in 1975 to 0.9% in 2019. The founders envisioned a free nation under God in which the role of government is to protect life and property. Our real challenge is to restore this mission and vision. It will make us all better off. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” Her recent book, “What Is the CURE for America?” is available now. To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

I recently covered the harmful effects of screen time. But like most technology, screens have also improved my life. Let’s explore some of these positives, which come with problems of their own. When I travel for work, FaceTime connects me to my children. When I'm hundreds of miles from home, I feel impossibly far from my family. Nothing is more important to me than seeing their faces and hearing their voices. There’s a redemption to the warmth and comfort that these video calls provide. I like to think of these apps and platforms as connective. They unite the sender and receiver despite any real-world obstacles. Skype and WhatsApp allow me to chat with family and friends overseas, and Instagram can serve as a kind of video telegram that exists in perpetuity. Thinking back to the isolation caused by the COVID-19 lockdowns, where would we be without Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams? Video communication also appears throughout social media. YouTube brought cinema and documentary into our hands, fracturing visions of a bloated system of channels by transforming mass media into a network of content made by anyone and everyone. As a journalist, I rely on various video platforms to conduct interviews and gather information. If Facebook lives up to its dreams of a metaverse, these interactions will be immersive. I’m a bit old for Snapchat, but the video messaging function adds levity to conversations. Twitch, X, Discord, and TikTok all contribute to the ongoing advancements of audiovisual two-way communication. Not to mention the luxury of our cellphone cameras. It has been a mere 60 years since Abraham Zapruder captured one of America’s darkest moments on an 8mm camera. I like to think of these apps and platforms as connective. They unite the sender and receiver despite any real-world obstacles. After all, this is the era of the network, when the narrative of stand-alone humans no longer has legs. Connective interfaces strengthen social bonds and provide much-needed clarity. There's none of the missing context that hinders letters, texts, and emails — even phone calls can muddle the reality of a conversation. They offer a version of telepresence, the feeling that everyone on the call is closer than possible. Remote telepresence has caused many interesting outcomes. One is the death of geography. Distance is no longer absolute. This has led to a disintegration of the private space, which has proven disastrous. Devotion to telepresence has disrupted a far more important experience: presence. It is truly a paradox of our time that the improvement is a fabrication that belittles the original, like meatless burgers and Marxist theory. This muddies the distinction between the real and the virtual, a pornographization of the connective process, something as simple as small talk at the market, any interaction that slows you down. A life of constant tele-action is bad for people. It denies us our need for a life without performance or observation. At its worst, it facilitates tele-surveillance. Like the nuclear family, the home is supposed to serve as a private institution apart from the State. This divide between public and private life is crucial for the health of a civilization. Without this separation, we can easily collapse into a culture of deadening indulgence (“Brave New World”) or a dystopia of authoritarian stricture (“Nineteen Eighty-Four”). Also, the speed of exchange is immediate. This worsens our servitude to a burnout society. On the flip side, this remote transmission is nothing short of a revolution in transportation. Society is now an endless practice of live coverage. Real-time connectivity offers each of us a superhuman view of life in all of its complexity. Imagine explaining that to an 11th-century peasant. So next time you feel overburdened by the pace of technology and the ubiquity of screens, slow down, if you can, and remember the good they can bring to you, that they allow you to meet with anyone, anywhere, in what could almost be called face-to-face.

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