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Opinion | Big Government is the root of London's riots

Olivia Brough, broughol@muohio.edu

Over the past few weeks, we've heard a lot about the riots in Great Britain, but we grapple with the reason behind them. Mark Duggen's death by the police was the reason for the Tottenham riot, but now doubts arise over who instigated the shooting. A bullet found in a policeman's radio and a non-police-issued gun were found on the scene. While the incident is unclear, it is clear that violence escalated from it.

The rioters were not downtrodden masses, breaking into stores looking for food. The riots were not due to injustice, but to greed and selfishness. The rioters weren't looting grocery stores or bookstores. They were taking electronics and other non-essentials. Looting was not just found in stores, but also on the streets. A 20-year-old college student in East London was even beaten for his bicycle. These riots were overwhelmingly criminal. But the riots aren't against something specific or to reach a political end, simply an excuse to steal.

My sister just returned from Oxford, England, and from her stories, it seems that the British police had an omniscient presence — such as arriving to a bar brawl before an instigator exits. Cameras were practically everywhere — but that presence wasn't designed to deter crime or maintain order, only to police everything else.

There was a police presence that's not meant to stop crime. So why is there crime? There is crime because the rioters feel entitled to the stuff they steal, and that entitlement-mentality comes from Big Government. In 1942, William Beveridge designed the British welfare system, describing it as an ‘abolition of want.' He met his goal. The U.K. has the highest drug abuse, the highest incidence of sexually transmitted disease, the most single mothers and the highest abortion rate in Europe, according to the 2009 U.K. census data. With the regression of the family unit, children ?lose morals and with more dependency on the government, people do not feel gratitude but resentment because they continuously want more. Intellectuals and politicians tell the people they're entitled to a high standard of living without any personal efforts to reach it.

In this situation, two main things deeply sadden me. As a history major, I see the tragedy of what happens when citizens feel no allegiance to anything — not to their own integrity and not to their own nation. They know nothing of Britain's past and do not care for its future. Their grandparents and great-grandparents fought horrendous wars, and for what, for their country to fall into this state?

Secondly, and most importantly, I find that Big Government/An Entitlement State/A Welfare State takes away the opportunity for a meaningful life, where one is free to pursue one's own potential without being policed socially and heavily taxed financially. Working hard for a personal goal — such as starting one's own business — and being self-reliant is an accomplished feeling. Dependency on government takes away the motive to work and thus the opportunity to feel accomplished. Big Government not only destroys a nation financially (high spending and redistributing wealth until ‘the goose stops laying the golden egg'), but it also destroys human capital and human potential. It's a system that wastes people. Without purpose, people become unhappy, angry and sometimes violent.

What is the U.K. to do now? Has it reached a dead end? Can the same thing happen in America? I see no escape from that entitlement culture for the U.K. And I see signs that America's heading in that dead-end direction. Already an entitlement culture is on the rise. Nearly half of Americans do not pay taxes and most receive redistributed money in return. Right now, Philadelphia is under curfew because of ‘flash mobs,' which are youths that use social media to organize in order to target a store and steal in mass, often beating people on the streets. The only way to prevent a situation such as in the U.K. is to stop going down this path of entitlement. Otherwise, it'll be too late. The best things in life are so valuable because they can easily be destroyed and can hardly be replaced.


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