The year is quickly coming to an end, and a new year awaits. At one time I looked forward with hope and happy anticipation to a new year. Now after many new years, I see little of new hope. We live in a time of hard lines drawn in the sand and no room for sensible compromise. A time when initiative and hard work are rewarded by big government taking away any gain and redistributing it to the lazy and slothful, or the rich and political elite.
The country seems to be rushing headlong into an even greater dependency on government to solve their problems, when we really need to slow down and evaluate what brought this nation so far from a few colonies to a world power. At the center of that success was personal initiative and the inalienable right to succeed or to fail while attempting something new and better, all the while working to support and improve oneself.
Growing up in the post World War II era of the 50’s and 60’s, I began to see a shift away from the “can do” attitude that made this country great, to an attitude of “I want mine, now”. That started the shift away from a willingness to work for success and reward, to waiting on government to rob the working class so that the new class of entitled lazy could benefit from the hard work of others. The early 60’s began a time of transition that has rapidly accelerated, with only a couple pauses of sanity reigning in this headlong rush. Now the age of sensibility and reason, based on earning one’s way to success, is rapidly waning, under the crushing weight of big government, cronyism, and entitlement.
Politicos on one side want to rob the working class of ever larger percentages of their hard earned incomes, to pay for social programs that reward laziness and a growing part of society that is unwilling to work day after day to succeed. On the other side is a group of stalwarts for the rich and politically connected that are unwilling to require those with greater wealth to pay their fair share.
When a multi-millionaire running for president pays a lower percentage of taxes than I do on comparatively meager earnings, it is evident that sensibility has fallen by the wayside. The old rhetoric of the rich provide jobs through their investments, and therefore are entitled to receive protection through loopholes in the tax system, is a bald face lie. For several decades now the investments creating jobs, have been supporting the economies of other nations rather than this country.
Conversely, those unwilling to work for their rewards, are becoming even more greedy and expecting equality of resources with those that have worked hard and earned everything they own. The “social programs” forced upon us by the opposite side of the government, have created a huge percentage of government dependent population, unable and unwilling to function, without a handout.
It is time for some tough love in this country. You want material things, then get a job and earn them. Work hard, smart, and diligently save for the things you treasure. Have pride in working and earning your way through life, rather than sitting around like all the other “victims”, waiting for big government to provide for you from their big coffers, built off the backs, sweat, and toil of the working middle class.
It is time for some tough love in this country. You have been blessed with much and been fortunate to accumulate wealth, then pay your fair share. If your “work” is investing the money you have been blessed with, then show me that you are creating jobs in this country. Show me the ways you have provided benefits to the working middle class of this country, and if they are real then your tax break can be based on that benefit.
It is time for some tough love in this country. Politicos on both sides of the aisle wake up, listen to the voices of reason and history of a great nation based on personal initiative and earning your way through life. Get your hands out of the pockets of the working middle class, and reach out to your opponents across the aisle, in a spirit of compromise for the good of this country. Ensure the rights of all citizens to earn to their potential are protected, and the rewards of one’s labor are protected from unfair taxation to empower laziness and cronyism.
Jobs in this country and around the world, are provided not by the rich or the lazy, but by the working middle class, who spend their hard earned dollars on goods and services, provided by other working class people. There is truly no free lunch, and the sooner the politicos on both sides of the aisle embrace this thought, and protect the working middle class, through taxation equality and respect for personal initiative and responsibility; the sooner we will begin to provide hope for a strong and prosperous country. Fail to protect the working class and continue to encourage the concept of something for nothing, and the United States will swiftly go the way of much of the European community now teetering on the brink of economic failure.
In this time where so much rhetoric is spewed forth concerning sustainability, we need to also include working class America in the endangered species list along with the loss of sustainability of the world power status of this country. Rewarding personal responsibility, initiative, and diligent labor, with fair retention of the fruits of one’s labor is sustainable. Big government, political cronyism, and the unwillingness to work diligently for what one wants, are not sustainable over the long term. Accept and empower these concepts and the people of this country may yet one day look forward to a happier, sustainable, and more prosperous new year!
