RUSH: Hillary’s comment here reminds me. As you people know, I, as a hobby, peruse tech blogs, ’cause I’m a gadget guy. I mean, when it comes to that, I’m a gadget nerd. I’m a gadget geek.
I’m fascinated by it by it, and so I read the things that are the first to have information and opinion about some of the latest stuff. Most of these blogs are populated by young people, Millennials, and most of the people on these blogs would qualify as nerds or geeks in the popular definition. One thing I have noticed, whether it’s talking… They hate cable TV. They despise cable TV. You know, one of the greatest values of spending all this time in these tech blogs is it is an open window to the Millennial generation.
I don’t know why. I’m fascinated by the Millennial generation. Well, no, I do know why. In addition to them being the future, they are the first generation that thinks the country has seen its best days, and it troubles me to no end, folks. I can’t tell you how that depresses me, too. They don’t associate the current economic malaise with the policies of this administration, for whatever reason. They associate the current malaise, the economic situation in the country with the fact that maybe America’s days are over.
They’re losing faith in the country, ’cause they have been educated this way.
I don’t know why per se, but they do not associate the current climate — economics and otherwise — with the Obama administration’s policies that have caused the current economic situation. Now, to you and me it’s a no-brainer. Everything happening in this country right now, especially after six-plus years, is because of Obama policy. These young kids (and the Millennials defined by anybody under 31) don’t make that connection. Now, they haven’t been taught that the Democrats are frauds and they haven’t been taught about Obama, so they just chalk it up to the fact that the country’s not there for ’em anymore.
The opportunity’s gone.
Their parents were the last generation that really had a chance to score big. So that attitude’s prevalent. But there’s also something else. They hate cable TV. They hate satellite TV. They hate the phone companies. They hate the cell companies. They hate, I mean, they literally despise. And the reason is that these companies charge money for their service. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ll be reading one of these tech blogs, and the big news is that something is free.
They just go gaga over the concept that something may be free, even an app for a phone that last week was $1.99, this week it’s free, and that means you better go get it. $1.99 is too much to spend on an app. But when it’s free… And there are, like this HBO business. The Millennials are the ones who have pushed the whole idea that HBO on cable is just too expensive, we can’t afford it. They hate cable. They hate having to pay for TV. A lot of them engage in the torrent sites and downloading pirated material, pirated content.
They wanted HBO to provide a direct stream so they could watch HBO on their iPads and phones and not have to have a cable subscription, ’cause they hate Comcast, they despise Comcast. They hate Comcast like their parents hated Big Oil. But the point, they’re devoted — well, it’s the wrong word. They just want everything free. They just think things should be given away, for whatever reason. I’ll tell you the reason it bothers me. You know, I wrote one of them back. “Have you ever thought about maybe going out, earning some money to buy HBO if you like it so much?”
And the answer I got back was, “There isn’t any money. Can’t find a job. Can’t find a job that pays me enough to be able to afford HBO after I feed myself,” something like that. So this constant quest and celebration of things for free. And it bothers me on two levels. When you’re obsessed with wanting things for free, who is it that promises to do that for you? The Democrat Party and the government. Free Obamacare, free health care, free food stamps. Of course, it isn’t free, but to them they think it is. That’s the first thing about it that bothers me.
The second thing about it that bothers me is the expectation that people that invest and build out and build up ought to give away their product as a public service or some such thing? Whereas the easy answer is to go out, get a job, earn the money you want to be able to buy the things you want and the things that you need. The idea that’s such a foreign concept marks a huge generational shift to me.
I don’t know, folks. Like I said, it’s a pet peeve. Every time I read — and not just of the Millennials. When I read people demanding or expecting or celebrating that something is free, there’s something about it that sends a red flag up. Something that gets my instincts highly attuned that this is not good, the expectation, the hope that something would be free, when nothing is. Well, that’s actually not true. The moon’s free. It’s there for everybody. Nature’s free. It’s there for everybody. In fact, there was a Broadway tune that said, “The best things in life are free. They’re there for you and me.” But you don’t possess them. They are the delights of life, but you don’t possess them. And to a certain degree that’s true.
We’re not talking about the delights of life. We’re talking about things and stuff that these people want and hope and expect would be free. When you’re of that mind-set, somebody comes along and promises you they can deliver, then they’re gonna have you for the rest of their lives, and yours, too.
And here comes Hillary: “America moves forward when all women are guaranteed the right to make their own health-care choices, not when those choices are taken away by an employer like Hobby Lobby.” Hobby Lobby didn’t take anybody’s choice away. Hobby Lobby simply said, “Our religious beliefs are such that we do not think we ought to be made to pay for abortifacients or contraception. If you want that, pay for it yourself.”
We’re paying you. You’re employees. You’re making a lot of money. Why should we pay for it? We don’t believe in it. “We want it free.”