American History Review: From Hard Work to Handouts
Posted in politics on 20. May, 2008
First, let me apologize for my absence the last couple weeks. There is no need to fear, your favorite political correspondent was not kidnapped by “They” as was speculated following my last blog. My wife and I were in Guatemala visiting family. We certainly had a wonderful time but, I digress.
While in Guatemala, the subject of politics came up as it normally does. My uncle has been involved in Guatemalan politics for years and has met every US President since Ronald Reagan. He hates all three of candidates for President and is rooting for Barack Obama. Not because he believes in “Yes, we can” but rather because he feels like he will be the worst candidate and that it will finally wake up Americans and remind them of what made America the greatest nation in the world.
Now, I do not agree 100% with the idea that all three are bad or that if elected Barack Obama will destroy the United States. However, my uncle does have a solid point about what truly made America great and I would now like to share that with you.
Three hundred years ago, American settlers in rickety wooden boats, endured horrible living conditions to come to the New World. Why did they do this? Was it because of the great health care system or because of quality education? Was it because the poor would be taken care of here better then any other place in the world? Was it because you were guaranteed a minimum wage? The answer is no, life in the American colonies was very hard. Europeans who came here experienced a lower life expectancy. Children worked as they did not have schools like they did in Europe.
The reason people made this dangerous voyage to a difficult place was because they wanted freedom to practice their religion and economic opportunity. Now this economic opportunity did not come with any guarantee of success, there was no government bail out if the business venture went bad. These people did not come to this country with the thought that opportunity would be given to them as a right. All they wanted was the opportunity to see if by entrepreneurial spirit, hard work and a little luck, they might, just might succeed.
Today, everyone wants a guarantee. Housing goes down because people were speculating the real estate market would never go bust. Government must come to the rescue. Banking industry is in trouble because people who should have known better made bad investments. Government must come to the rescue. People build houses and business in a flood zone and, surprise, surprise there is a flood. Government must come to the rescue.
In economics there is a phrase, “There is no such thing as free lunch”. While you may not be the one paying for it, someone is. We have slowly developed from a people who were determined to go out and make their own lunch to a people who want to sit back and complain that we are hungry and need government to feed us.
Three hundred years ago the American colonies were like a third world country today. I am sure that it would have come as a shock to the monarchs of Europe that in just a little over two hundred years this third world country would be the most powerful nation the world has ever known.
