Progressive thought has been damaging our society for decades. The following is a transcript of a recent interview Fox co-anchor Steve Doocy had with Valencia College Economics Professor Jack Chambless. (The transcript has been edited for space.) Interestingly enough, the video is quickly disappearing from YouTube. I wonder why?

Doocy:“I understand on one of the first days of your class, which is predominantly sophomores, you ask the kids to write a 10 minute essay on what the American dream means to them, and this year, the results were jaw-dropping. Tell us a little bit about it.”

Chambless: “Well in addition to asking them what the American dream looks like for them, I then had them write specifically what they wanted the federal government to do to help them achieve that dream. I took the essays from three classes, about 180 students, back to my office and over the next day poured over them. About 10 percent of the students said that they wanted the government to leave them alone and not tax them too much and let them regulate their own lives. But over 80 percent of the students said that the American dream to them meant a house and a job and plenty of money for retirement and vacations and things like this. When it came to the part about the federal government, 8 out of 10 students said that they wanted free healthcare, they wanted the government to pay for their tuition, they wanted the government to pay for the down payment on their house, they expected the government to quote, ‘give them a job.’ Many of them said that they wanted the government to tax wealthier individuals so that they would have an opportunity to have a better life.” . . .

Doocy: “Well, where do you think this sense of entitlement comes from?”

Chambless: “Well, certainly I think a big part of it comes from the public schools. When I start talking to my students over the semester and ask them how much time the public schools spend on the principles of John Locke or Adam Smith or Hayek or some of the other people who very clearly said that we have a God-given right to life, liberty, and property, but the government doesn’t have a responsibility to provide things for us -- when I ask them how much of this they learn in their classes, K-12, they stare at me and they say, ‘Well, we’ve never heard these sorts of things.’ So, the public schools are part of it. I do think the last 20 years or so we’ve seen a growing sense of entitlement by the American people. As you probably have read, we are in a situation now where 44 percent of the American people now are living off of some sort of government benefit, compared to only 29 percent back in the early 80’s. And I also think the last three years of having a president that appealed to the younger generation by saying that somehow people who are wealthier are a problem for us, much like Franklin Roosevelt told people 70 years ago, and that these people somehow should be sending their money to others. I think this has really caught on with a lot of students, and they believe that somehow the tooth fairy exists in Washington, D.C.” More next week . . .