Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Spirit of 1776, or 1917?

Recently, I was able to purchase a brand new radiator for my vehicle from an online retailer at an extremely discounted price over that of a “brick-and-mortar” auto parts store. All thanks to the competitive nature of capitalism, which favors consumers more often than not by organically self-regulating prices. According to President Obama, though, I should thank the government – because “if you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Is that what he truly believes?

Nobody Else Made It Happen, Mr. President, by Rob Miller (American Thinker)

From this one statement, the president has shown his true socio-economic philosophy – and it is a socialist-leaning one. In his worldview, it was not the individual drive and entrepreneurial spirit of, by and for the people that crafted American exceptionalism; it was, and is, the government. Every business owner – from large corporations to small “mom-and-pop” shops (if they still exist) – should find concern in the economic policies of an administration that portrays itself as the purveyor of economic success. And yet, takes no responsibility for the failed ventures.

Was it not thirteen colonies composed of self-made men – from the daily laborers operating as blacksmiths and cobblers to the autonomous farmers and industrialists – who built the United States after breaking from a government that wished to control and regulate their commerce? Even in the last century, the Apollo Moon landings, though spearheaded by President Kennedy’s call to action, are still a prime example of private enterprise accomplishing great achievements that could not have occurred without the men and women who had the drive and spirit to make it happen.

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks...if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.”

When government believes itself king over the investment in ideas and innovation, it is time to hide the money under the mattress – because the politicians are coming for it. Not in the spirit of 1776, but in the spirit of 1917.

©2012 Steve Sagarra

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