So this shut down has me thinking, and I'm probably about to make myself all sorts of unpopular, but that's better than unknown.

The problem here is not the thousands of Americans normally employed by the government who are out of work.

The problem is the loss of an ethic, if it was ever really there. Maybe it's just what we were told. Maybe it's the new deal, and maybe it started long before that. Maybe it's a competing ethic, but one that should not be attributed to the government.

Our Judaeo-Christian tradition certainly exhorts us to take care of our neighbor, but it never suggests that we have a right to our neighbor's support. We are taught to tithe, to support our priests, and can choose whether we want to do so or not. We have a long history of assistance and care, but no homeless person ever had a claim of support from his church, or synagogue, or the salvation army, or the countless charity hospitals that so many of our modern institutions grew out of.

What America has historically offered is a chance for people to make their own way, often against daunting odds. America became great on the backs of people who just wanted a fair shot, or even an unfair one. Just give us a chance . . .

And it's not just Judaeo-Christian, but the protestant exhortations to self-reliance, to each carrying his own burden. This isn't to say that people did not willingly take on the burdens of others as well. They did, but it was mutual aid societies, and unions, and philanthropists giving libraries and hospitals. And it was good.