Ever since emerging from WWII, America has been at the apex of global society. We lead in economic ingenuity. We lead in scientific innovation. And as we always have, we lead in the freedom we provide.
Because of that, the post WWII era has never been equaled in promoting the American Dream. It’s a dream where everyone has the opportunity to be or do anything they want. Through hard work and time, any goal can be accomplished.
Over the past few decades however, the notion of living that dream has been twisted into the idea that since you are an American, you are entitled to that dream.
Through the words of Thomas Jefferson in The Declaration of Independence, we all know that Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness is an unalienable right endowed to us by God, and in this country, we were given the freedom to pursue those endowments through the American Revolution.
But, gradually through time (especially the past half century), I feel that our government has perverted that freedom and those pursuits into an American Guarantee where no one can fail. In essence, the dream itself has become an entitlement program.
When did we go from a people that aspired to do and be something more through a dream to a people wanting the easy road through entitlements and handouts from the federal government? The more government grants and entitles to its people (socialism?), the further we get from what makes America great.
Today, we make excuses that GM and Bank of America are companies too large to fail, but isn’t that the nature of the free market? In GM’s case, their business plan is so warped by the unions that whatever excuses and escapes the federal government hands out, we prolong what inevitably needs to happen. Instead of perpetuating a broken business model, it needs to fail through the tools that are provided in a free market.
From the largest business to the struggling independent contractor, we learn from that failure. We learn to get back up, dust ourselves off and try again. Yes, millions may be out of work, but where there’s a will (or need), there’s a way. Where one door closes, another will open. We live in a country that allows us the freedom to pursue and do as we choose. We will always have successes and failures, neither of which is guaranteed. It’s up to us to make do with what we have and to achieve what we can, not your government.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin in reference to another great document enabling freedom: “The US Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.”
ER
- Newsweek: We are All Socialists Now
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