From the Bottom Up
Deborah Venable
11/24/08
According
to the president-elect, America’s economy will be rebuilt from the bottom
up. He says that is the way it has
always been. He snickers at the
“trickle down” philosophy, and sees no need to take wealth seriously except as
a means of government taxation. In
other words, he will “take down” to grow up.
Okay. So now all we have to do is sit around and
wait for “The One” and his handpicked team of like-minded socialists – oops, I
mean Americans – to plant the crops and show us exactly how to reap the
benefits. But wait, farming is hard
work after all, so who is supposed to do it?
Back
to elementary education here; in life you either have to work for what you get
or pay someone else to do the work. If
you can’t work and have no money, you must rely on charity.
Charity
comes from compassionate people who feel very blessed themselves and choose to share their feelings of
good fortune. There is no charity in
government mandated confiscation and handout from the “blessed” to the “less
fortunate.” It makes for a cold,
uncaring population that once was, or could be, a close-knit community of
charitable human beings. It also makes
for a less productive middle and upper class.
Has
anyone else noticed that modern politicians are more and more referring only to
“helping the middle class” with government policy, and seldom if ever making
any differentiation between the middle class and the poor? The middle class in any successful society
should be the strongest group of people in it.
Strong because they are not only capable of doing the work but also of
paying for the work they choose not to do.
In other words, they do it all.
The upper echelons of the middle class are constantly striving to become
wealthier, thus are willing to work harder to achieve success. The lower echelons of the middle class are
popping up out of the poverty level, (poor class) in ever-increasing numbers –
in a successful society, that is. The
sky is the limit for all.
Then
we have “the rich” – that upper class in our society that the president-elect
and his advisors have never truly pinned down, (on the bottom end anyway.) This group of people, whoever they are, the
socialist philosophy would demote as much as possible down into the middle
class that still needs all their “help” in order for “fairness” to reign.
After
all, the more people who become dependent on government help, the bigger the
power base for government to grow. The
whole idea of “limited government” is swept away, along with the individual
freedoms that would stand in the way of government becoming more powerful than
the people. If we cannot control our
own wealth, then we cannot control our own lives. It is as simple as that!
Class mobility stagnates and breeds more and more contempt for life
itself.
People
will work only as much as they are forced to work in such a society.
Great
economies are not grown from the bottom up, but abusive governments certainly
are.
Let’s
take a quick look at just one of the industries that helped to make America the
strongest economy in the world. Because
of overwhelming government interference in the automotive industry, it is on
the precipice of self-destruction at this very moment as it crawls to
government with its hand out for assistance.
Oddly enough, this great industry is doing fine in other parts of the
world, but is faltering on the brink of non-existence here. When it goes, (as a free enterprise,
privately run industry) it will take a huge chunk of American prosperity with
it. The beginning of its end happened
decades ago.
My
parents bought a brand new car back in 1949.
Price tag - $900. I bought a
brand new car in 1977. Price tag -
$5,000. These were comparable quality
automobiles for their eras, but in only 28 years the price increased five and a
half times – with most of that increase coming towards the end of that time
gap. Things happened during that time
period that would forever keep that rate of price escalation in play. The industry was put under excruciating
government regulation that was now forced to pass their every innovative idea
under the microscope of government approval.
They no longer enjoyed the freedom to direct their business exclusively
toward self-chosen goals. Safety
standards, fuel efficiency, and, of course, higher mandated wages and benefits
for the workers via crushing union contracts had to be met.
During
this time, the groundwork was laid to modify the behavior of consumers of the
auto industry’s products to insure that success would only be achieved under
the jealous scrutiny of government approval.
We were shamed into demanding that cars be first more fuel efficient and
yet safer than their antique predecessors.
That involved making them lighter, smaller, (thus far more dangerous)
and finally equipping them with such “safety” features as seatbelts. The public was not allowed to think through
any of these things and make our own choices about which products we preferred,
because we, too, were “regulated” to believe in these government mandates, and
punished if we did not.
I
warned decades ago that in a free society I should not be forced to wear a
seatbelt in a privately owned vehicle, but I was laughed at and accused of
being “irresponsible” if I didn’t. Then
I was heavily fined when I still made the personal choice not to comply. Punished.
Ridiculed. Bullied into
compliance with a law that I have seen with my own eyes cause death and serious injury, I still rebel.
The
government is not always right. This is
just one small example, and it falls on deaf ears of even most conservatives –
the result of very effective behavior modification.
From the bottom up we can grow an ever more intrusive
government, but we will never grow a healthy economy, Mr. Obama. That takes a lot of hard work from a willing
workforce of free individuals sponsored by an investment of wealth from the top
down. Oh, and it also requires a
burning desire to be exceptional in an unfair world. That certainly cannot be mandated.