Let's say that your parents legally immigrate to the U.S. with just a few dollars in their pockets. They work hard, save their pennies and help send you to college. In order to afford college, you work two jobs, eat macaroni and cheese 10 times a week, and take an average of 18 hours a semester so you can graduate in three and a half years. After graduating, you work a couple of jobs, scrimp and save so that you can afford a downpayment on a home. After several years of working for someone else, you decide to start your own business, taking a second mortgage. It's tough at first, as you are the only employee, so you work 80 or 90 hours a week. After a couple of years of doing everything yourself, you're finally able to hire a couple of employees. You soon hire more employees and begin to build a very successful business. You see your income rise to the point that you finally earn over $250,000 per year! After all of your hard work and sacrifices, you achieve the American dream, building something that can be passed down to your children and grandchildren.
How does our President view your success?
First of all, he believes that you aren't paying your "fair share" in taxes, although you pay 26% of your income in federal income taxes (on top of state taxes, local taxes, business taxes and the payroll taxes you, your business and your employees pay).
Secondly, he believes that you didn't build your business; someone else did. He also feels that your success was due largely to all the help you received, not because you worked harder and had the courage to risk nearly everything to start your own business.
Here's what he said: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/15/obama-dashes-american-dream-suggests-nobody-achieves-success-alone/
“There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me because they want to give something back,” President Obama said. “If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,” he said. “The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”
Yes, this is what our President said on Friday during a campaign stop in Roanoke, Virginia. While some of what he said has some merit, he clearly chose to focus on the success of the individual because of the collective, rather than emphasizing the role that individual responsibility has in determining one's success.
His message may appeal to the growing multitudes of Americans who don't workm don't want to work and instead rely on government programs for sustenance. The President has implicitly given those Americans an excuse to blame others, not themselves, for their plight. His message is that "You aren't successful because you weren't given enough help along the way, not because you weren't smart enough or didn't work hard enough."
But for those of us who have worked hard and are successful, his message is a slap in the face. His message also contradicts all of the core American values we were taught as children to help us become successful, productive adults.
The President's message, dare I say it, is closer to something Joseph Stalin would say than anything George Washington would say.
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