I recently read an article about a couple that went zip lining outside of the US and the husband suffered a horrible accident after the wind shifted. He is now in Mexico with a brain injury. I don’t know why, but I started reading the comments. Sometimes the comments are more informative that the actual news article. They provoke thought. In some stories, they are humorous. Not in this one though. This is a sad story so the comments were filled with prayers, concerns, the atheist saying prayers aren’t going to help unless you back it with cash, and of course….the comments I refer to as the “blame game” comments. None of those were a surprise of course, but the one that stood out to me was “why isn’t the government helping to pay?” For accuracy sake, I will say I am paraphrasing, but the bottom line is….it’s the governments responsibility.

That leads me to my: “The Question is Why” segment.

Why are so many Americans so quick to jump to, “Let the government pay for it”. The last I checked, the government doesn’t have a bottomless bank account. For those that struggle with this concept, let me put it in a simpler fashion…..

Someone has to fill the gas tank before you can run the car!

Now, if you are the one receiving the money from the government, you are not the one filling the gas tank. If you are the hard working, tax paying citizen, you ARE filling the gas tank.

The money isn’t falling from the sky people. It has to come from somewhere. We are going to be in trouble one day because, at the rate we are going, we are going to have more people taking money from government sources than we have paying in. What do we do then???

Now, the people I feel bad for are those that legitimately need the help. They are unable to fiscally contribute to society, either due to physical or mental limitations. It is our responsibly to help those that need that help. I won’t go into all of the ones that I feel we should NOT be helping because that would be another post. I want to talk about this one situation.

Here are some facts that I have learned, based on the story and the comments:

They “the couple” have been together for 20 years. This means they are capable of communicating with each other, making plans with each other, etc. It wasn’t a emotionally charged, spur of the moment, trip planned by 20 something year olds.

She (the wife) is a doctor. I don’t know what kind, but many posted that she was their doctor, so I’m going to guess at least family practice or specialty. She’s not a medical examiner for a county, she interacts with real people on a regular basis and seems to be well liked. This tells me she is educated, had decent social skills, etc.

They went with another couple. This means FOUR adults made the decisions for this trip, or at least 2 and the other two just went along with their decisions. Either way, one person, in all likelihood, did not plan and pay for this entire trip.

Four adults went on a trip outside the country, which means they knew to get a passport and they had the fiscal means to do so as well as the fiscal means to actually go on a trip.

I am not trying to pick on this couple during their tragedy, this really could be for anyone that fits these demographics…..but not once did they make a decision to purchase international trip insurance. That was THEIR choice. They didn’t look to see if their insurance would cover them outside of the country, but now that something tragic has happened, some “do gooder” instantly says….why isn’t the government helping to pay?

Are you kidding me???? That is the PROBLEM with so many. Now, in fairness….The wife is NOT the one asking the government to help. Someone set up a “GoFundMe” account for them. I truly do hope those they work with and those that respect this doctor step in and help them. I won’t be. Not because I don’t care, but because my money goes to organizations and causes I believe in. That’s how most people decide who and when to support.

For those that are reading this and want to see the original story, here it is: Accident leaves husband with brain injury

If you want to help them, here is the GoFundMe link. GoFundMe

It looks like almost half of the $100,000 has already been raised, which is great.

As I have said, this is NOT about them, I wish them well. This is about someone automatically saying anything that costs money should be the governments responsibility. Even I have gambled on the outside the US travel insurance. Sometimes I buy it, sometimes I don’t. Educational side note, ALWAYS know what your insurance does and does not cover, especially when going out of the country.

We have to stop automatically assuming the government’s money will bail us out when we make choices that end up fiscally impacting us.

That is my soapbox for the day.