What's great about America
And it sure isn't politicians.
Via Michelle Malkin.
The area my husband and I live in, Northwest Arkansas, was one of the fastest growing areas of the country for several years. It is the home of several great companies including Wal-Mart and Tyson. But it has been hit very hard by the economic downturn. After the bank closed I had a very difficult time finding work, but did eventually find employment for less than 1/2 of what I had previously made. Moreover, my husband's job had become heavily dependent on the growth in the area, and he is now working to keep his head above water while adjusting his practice. We are now most likely upside down in our house and our mortgage has become tough to manage. (Thank God it is a fixed rate mortgage). To add insult to injury, our daughter started college this year and our son, god willing, will start college next year. However, I will be damned if I ever ask another American to bail us out of our situation or to help us with our mortgage.
From Robert Hall, a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts state senate.
I'll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.
I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth around" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.
I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes."
These are the people who make America great. And the thing some people don't seem to understand is that these people (and the tens of millions like them) didn't work hard all their lives to make America great. They worked hard, they modified their behavior to achieve their own personal goals.
And as a society we have benefitted from their individual efforts, but society didn't benefit because these people were trying to help out anyone other then themselves or their families and friends. And that'a not greed; it's reality.
The problem is when government and politicians reward unproductive behavior and punish those who produce wealth and jobs for themselves. People (acting in their own self-interest) realize it doesn't make any sense to work hard when you can sit around and get cell phones and TVs for doing nothing. As people start modifying their behavior and becoming less productive, society loses out on the benefits of people's individual efforts. At some point productive people decide having the government take the money they earned for working their butts off isn't worth it.
Has anyone seen John Galt?
