Recently Economics Professor Jack Chambless of Valencia College in Orlando asked his college students to write an essay “explaining their definition of the American Dream and what they expected the federal government to do to help them achieve their version of this dream.”
The results are shocking, to say the least. Here’s what Chambless explained during an appearance on Fox New Channel (video here or below).
“About 10% of the students said they wanted the government to leave them alone and not tax them too much and let them regulate their own lives. But over 80% of the students said that the American dream to them meant a house, and a job, and plenty of money for retirement and vacations and things like this. When it came to the part about the federal government, eight out of ten students said they wanted free health care, they wanted the government to pay for their tuition, they wanted the government to pay for the down payment on their house, they expected the government to ‘give them a job.’ Many of them said they wanted the government to tax wealthier individuals so that they would have an opportunity to have a better life.”
On his website, Chambless wrote: “One student who thought her American Dream could be best achieved with more government regulations went so far as to say, ‘We all know that there are many bad side effects when regulations take place, but as human beings, we are not really responsible for our own acts, and so we need government to control those who don’t care about others. It makes sense that our freedom is reduced every day with the new regulations.’”
Chambless blames the public schools, in large part, for failing to teach principles of the right to “life, liberty, and property,” but also that the government doesn’t have the responsibility for providing that.
Chambless also said that 44 percent of Americans are receiving some form of government benefit, as compared to 29 percent in the early 1980s.
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