Politics - The American Dream

The "American Dream" has changed over our history. The American Dream at one time gave the promise to immigrants of a government who would not impede their financial success. A person could accomplish as much as his talent and drive would allow him to do and he would be able to reap the benefits of that talent and work ethic. The American Dream was not handed to a person at birth or upon stepping foot inside America, it was to be earned. The American Dream has shifted to a more European sort of dream over the last half century or so. We are likely to see another step toward the European Dream with some form of universal health care. We are moving further towards a society that believes everyone is entitled to the same rewards regardless of talent or work ethic. The successful are taxed excessively to pay for services for the middle class and poor to level the American Dream.

In some ways it is surprising that we would follow the lead of the European nations. Europe has the guilt of the feudal system it lived under for centuries, one where those in power oppressed the average citizen and made sure there was a ceiling to their financial possibilities. It then is not surprising that national historic guilt would lead them to a system where wealth is taken from the rich and given to the common people as if to make up for past mistakes. It is similar to the United States' laws of affirmative action. Our guilt over slavery has caused us to tip the scales in the other direction to make amends for our sins. Yet the United States has no guilt of oppressing the poor and preventing them for raising themselves up. We have a history of immigrants flocking to this country with nothing and acquiring the American Dream through hard work. Many immigrants may not have obtained much wealth in their lifetime as they learn a new language and culture, but they likely saw their children have the success that validated their decision to move to our free capitalist society.

Our capitalist economy led us to be the world power. Wealth creates power. True wealth is measure in terms of production. Nobody could out produce a growing capitalist economy. We are turning more toward socialism. Socialist societies will produce less due to economic laws. Less production will mean less wealth. Less wealth will mean less power. Combine the less wealth with the fact that socialist governments have much higher expenses and it creates a government that will eventually spend itself into bankruptcy, such as the Soviet Union did. The United States is about to embark on a universal health care program. It surely is a comforting thought to know that every man, woman, and child in the United States could receive the health care he or she needs. Many would argue that the quality of health care will drop in a universal program, which certainly stands to reason. Leaving that issue aside, everyone would be forced to acknowledge that it will cost the government a great deal of money, money which it does not have. Obama has talked repeatedly about his efforts to find cost reductions within the health care industry as if this were part of his health care plan. Even if we could reduce costs in the health care industry those actions are independent from universal health care. It is a completely separate discussion. Yet he is trying to combine the two to hide the tremendous burden universal health care will be to the government budget.

I understand that the numbers are so large now that they mean nothing to the average citizen. How are we to understand trillions? It is too much to fathom, so we cannot be concerned about that which we do not understand. So, try this out. We are entering a time when for every dollar that the government spends, fifty cents is borrowed. That is astonishing. It makes me very nervous and, to be honest, a little nauseated. I worry for my children and my grandchildren. What country will they inherit? Our quality of life is dependent upon the Chinese government and others subsidizing all our government spending. Eventually that will end. The United States is not in a position to take on more welfare projects such as Universal Healthcare. We are going to have to scale back our quality of life, because we have borrowed our quality of life, we have not earned it. All things must be paid for. We will pay for spending beyond our means eventually. We can scale back slowly or we can wait for one huge fall that could make the Great Depression look rosy. When the Soviet Union went bankrupt things turned ugly quickly.

It is nice and idealistic to want everyone to have high quality of life, but things must be earned, they are not simply plucked from a government tree. We could move towards higher taxes, but people do not want that because it will reduce their quality of life. Nobody wants to pay for the unearned benefits. Tax the rich is familiar chant. However, the rich will first pass much of that cost on to employees by either firing people or reducing their pay and then secondly will quit expanding and possibly even go out of business. We are a connected society. I can tell you that I want my employers to make a lot of money because I understand that my earnings, to a certain extent, are tied to their earnings. If you soak the rich it will affect the middle class and poor. It's time to get our government spending under control. Instead we are about to take on another huge expense that, once we have, we will never be able to reduce or eliminate. That light at the end of the tunnel is coming quicker now. It's not hope that we will find though, it's a bankruptcy train that will run over us before we know what hit us. We need to turn around and head the other direction. We will realize it before it's too late? California did not. In about forty years they went from the Golden State to the bankrupt state. A testing ground for the liberal socialist movement, it has been run into the ground. It has the highest individual tax rate, pays its teachers 25% more than the national average (unions have huge power), and provides services to anyone with a hand out. It is now blowing up. High tax individuals are moving to Nevada. California is among the lowest scoring states in the nation in education and California has no money to provide any services. It's the model our nation is following. We had better understand it.