Millennials, it's time to address the elephant in the room: our society babies us.

We're brought up on participation trophies, totally unrealistic aspirations to be anything we set our minds to and calling our teachers by their first names. We were given cell phones before puberty hit. We could publish a 27 volume encyclopedia of just the selfies we post on the internet. People are no longer getting married and going to church and instead are whining for things like Taylor Swift's new single and raising the minimum wage.

Well, tough up buttercup.

We have let our society go way too far. Able-bodied people should be expected to take care of their own needs and wants without the assistance of the government or other people. Because that's what made America great: the freedom provided by unbounded, free-range capitalism.

The rise of socialism in America is not a fight on the horizon; it is already here. While some of us prepare the barricades for newfound communism that has taken nest within the lazy and demanding new generation, others are trying to uproot its insidious presence. The suckling of funds from the teat of the American people began long ago. Each new generation has a chance to stem the flow.

When did I ask for streetlamps to exist for my use? Oh that's right, I didn't. The taxes that I pay with my part time job and the taxes my parents definitely pay under which I'm listed as a dependent are going to a costly and completely unnecessary public sinkhole.

If we got rid of streetlamps, everyone would carry their own lantern. They would, for the first time in their lives, be given the opportunity to prepare for nightfall when they leave their house. Think of how much more responsible and upstanding citizens would be.

I'm not the only one who feels this way either; below, Hershel Thomas speaks courageously to The Daily Gazette in the letters to the editor section.

"Frankly, I do not see the merit in allowance of collecting haypences for the use of protecting wagtails and un-gentlemanly figures who wish to mingle in the lane. All God fearing citizens will have turned in for the night, and for the matter, the risks allotted by the gas lamp attendants are not of the treatment a profession should bear. "

Sir Thomas clearly has the right idea here. The costs of installing a single streetlamps are upwards of $20,000. Can you imagine how much money we could add to our measly military budget if we were to stop babying people, and force them to learn a thing or two about responsibility and self defense?

It shouldn't fall on the government's chore list to hold the hands of its citizens and make them dependent for basic tasks. And it shouldn't be my parents' money that has to pay for it.