Tariffly Entitled

Uh. Are the steel tariffs an entitlement program? I don’t know how any of this stuff works. For decades I have been listening to people bemoan welfare and bridge cards and the all encompassing “entitlement” programs which keep people from working hard or incentivizing them to work hardly at all. BUT! It seems that forcing market conditions to “save” something that is extinct burns useless energy and is entitling a false foundation of financial security.
 
My maternal great-grandfather was a butcher, market owner. The Great Depression took his store credit and bled it out. My paternal great-grandfather was a coal miner. He did not lead his children into the mine. My grandfather walked up to the gates of a closed auto factory. Never once in family lore have I ever heard anyone say, “the government…the company…the State…the (anyone other than me)…owes me a job.”
 
So. I was just wondering this morning while driving from one of my jobs to the next, is this push for coal and steel nothing more than an entitlement program? Why is the government forcing market conditions? More importantly why are people not seeking another skill set? Why aren’t companies operating more efficiently? ; )
Listen – I am oblivious and naïve and blessed because my current status allows me to do anything with humility and confidence having a family mindset that has led me coast-to-coast creating opportunities.
 
That being said, I have been told since I was a kid and again as an adult to “get a job.” The worst part about hearing that nowadays is that a vast number of people have no transportation, reliably, to get them to the opportunities that exist. We have been pushing autonomy since coal and steel came into adolescence. Get a job, get a car…catch your 22’s in a conundrum.
 
As a society we removed the easiest, most efficient mode of transport and planning and now, like a boomerang, we are building personal train cars. As if it were not enough to have our own car and be expected to drive it we now are building entitled train cars. Why not hook all the autonomous cars up and…that’s a TRAIN! Getting people to where the opportunities are quickly and efficiently has fallen into the social pothole of personal entitlement.
 
I just wrote myself into a corner. The government, company, State doesn’t owe me a job so why would I expect the government, company, State to get me to where I need to be. Market conditions make it beneficial and sustainable to fill the glut of employment opportunities.  Market conditions also suggest that you need to up your skill set and move on because past conditions do not provide future opportunities.
 
I’m grateful for being taught that I am responsible for me; being stuck or dependent upon an outside source is not in my lunchbox. I should ask for help when needed but the trick to that is, when help is presented – I have the responsibility to take it. That means moving, or learning something else, or working midnights. Things will change – unless I wait for my government, company, State to change it for me.
 
Anyway. Hoping to shed some light on the energy we put into tariffs. Blaming outside forces entitles me to do nothing to improve my situation.