It’s open enrollment season for Medicare. Local TV stations and cable networks are flooded with ads for various insurance supplements. They promise “free” dental care, free transportation to doctors, free drugs, free dentures, and lots of other free stuff. Paid spokespersons speak of “benefits” and “entitlements.” They say subscribers could receive as much as $100 a month back into their Social Security checks. Even the phone number to call to sign up is “absolutely free.”
Read the small print and you’ll find that some of the plans vary by region, some by ZIP code. Sometimes, there’s a nominal cost, so it’s not actually “free.” Call a “licensed” insurance agent for more details. Licensed by whom? Probably the companies selling the plans.
Some of the ads pay aging celebrities such as quarterback Joe Namath, basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, and comedian Jimmie Walker to pitch their products.
Notice the use of certain words and how they also are used by politicians to dupe people into believing they aren’t getting what they “deserve” because “the rich”—those predatory, stingy, and greedy people—aren’t paying their “fair share” in taxes.
The rest will be spent on other things unrelated to infrastructure and drive us deeper into debt, along with a separate social spending bill to expand “entitlements” that will addict more people to government.
People not only have to read between the lines to find the truth, but also explore different sources of information. If you read only, say, The Washington Post and The New York Times and watch CNN and MSNBC, you will likely believe what comes from their worldview—government is good and here to help you, at least when Democrats are in control. If you read other publications, say, The Washington Times and The Wall Street Journal, watch Fox News, and listen to conservative talk radio, you will learn things you didn’t know by consuming only left-of-center media. The media also have the power to ignore certain subjects that would give consumers a more balanced information diet.
The problem is that too many people read and tune into only those sources that reinforce what they already believe. That, too, is a type of propaganda.
Here’s the key part that flies in the face of the envy and entitlement crowd: “I have worked and saved my whole life … I have paid my bills and aggressively funded a retirement. To hear ad nauseam the lie that I am getting away with something at tax time … is frustrating. Now President Biden wants even more on the false premise that people like me aren’t paying enough. Half isn’t enough?”
Once, we celebrated and encouraged success. Now, we subsidize mediocrity and failure. We are then surprised we are getting more of the latter and less of the former. Do your homework. Don’t be manipulated by the language used by politicians and TV ads promising free stuff.
