Saturday, August 11, 2012

YOU DIDN'T BUILD THAT ON YOUR OWN ...

America's middle class didn't just happen. With great effort - before and after the American Revolution - the feudal mentalities and hereditary privilege that we saw in Europe gave way to the democratic impulse and equality of opportunity. This happened for a reason.


Simply put, we learned long ago that concentrated power and inherited wealth was corrosive to society and personal liberty. The Founding Fathers understood that for personal liberty to prosper the state had to both create and guard the conditions under which wealth could be created.

I bring this up because the "I built this on my own" crowd seem to have no idea what modern government does. Apart from moving us from a condition where hereditary rights and narrow privilege dominate society, today modern governments (i.e. Western style democracies) try to get rights "right" so that all of us enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities to pursue our life goals.

In fact, someone wrote about the need for government to do this a long time ago ...
... We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men ... 
Access to, and the protection of, personal property are the result of the modern state.


Unfortunately, there are many Americans today who believe that virtually everything the government does is akin to socialism. The simplicity of thinking here is, simply put, mind-numbing. I won't dwell on the point except to say that the level of thinking behind this mind-set reminds me of this ...



The American experience, and the human condition today, are much more complex than self absorbed positions about homo economicus and ignorant caricatures of the state.

And, no, you didn't build that on your own.

- Mark 

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