I worked for some brilliant and hard-working people in the 1970s. In the 1990s I prepared Peter F. Drucker's book, "Innovation and Entrepreneurship," for Harper & Row.
Here's the way I see it:
Attitudes toward big business changed when Hollywood began to portray wealth as an evil force. Social programs in place since Truman's presidency were multiplied by the Johnson administration, and this largess dependended on a high number of wage-earners. It wasn't long before a new tide of immigration took place. These were not the hard-working types who came before (we all know the work ethic of earlier immigrants), but people who were intent on "playing" the system. A system that is "played" by pregnant girls from Guatemala ... by men like the forensic psychiatrist from Pasadena who used his position to bilk the State of California. It takes about 30 years for such a system to become morally and financially bankrupt.
In California, while John Vasconcellos expounded his theories regarding self esteem, I watched as businesses everywhere endured increased regulation and taxation. I watched as the forensic psychiatrist I worked for processed hundreds of claims using people culled from the lines of the unemployed. California is a case study of how liberal thinkers -- men like John Vasconcellos -- were, through the legislation they passed, unwittingly destroying the very land they loved.
Fact: The working American of today is heavily burdened, and among the overburdened you will find entrepreneurs who, having been successful once, will choose to move their businesses to more favorable locations. This is what happened in California. Ireland, on the other hand, provides us with an example of how to turn things around. Here was a country who taxed enterprises out of business, then reversed course to become one of the best places to build your next plant. The financial crisis that began in the U.S. and spread across Europe hit Ireland hard, but their leaders consider raising taxes to be a last-resort measure.
Most people work to make a living, but the real money is earned by those with an honest desire to work. Businesses are created by entrepreneurs with vision and a desire to succeed. The government that places too heavy a burden on both the worker and the entrepreneur kills the proverbial Ggoose Who Laid the Golden Egg. It's a common ailment, for the governments who have done this are many. After all, why should anyone work hard if their profits will be seized, squandered and given to someone else?
Most young people in America today do not see the dangers of treading upon another person's rights or seizing money from one man to give to another.
Those who hold political office don't understand that the money they distribute -- and, often enough, waste -- has been EARNED by the hard-working wage-earner, who in turn pays a hefty portion of his wages to the government.
We've reached the point where those who hold government positions think the money is theirs to command. They never consider where the real source of wealth is: in the SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE. All they know is, the government has money and it's their job to spend it.
It goes without saying: If half the nation is receiving sustenance from the other half, and the wages of the other half decrease to the point where there is now AN OPPRESSED, DECLINING HALF struggling to fund government coffers, then you have an unsustainable future.
At the age of 67. I find myself living in a society that is litigious, full of rules and an abundance of people to enforce them. The population in general is unhappy. Young people everywhere are disrespectful, angry ... violent. To see where all this is headed, you have only to look to Russia and those countries that recently broke free of the Iron Curtain. Much like it was in the Germany and Russia of the 1940s, the America of today has raised a generation of pampered young who now tell their elders what to do.
It used to be a mark of abject failure to be "on the dole" but that attitude does not prevail today. I have a liberal-minded sister who prides herself on figuring out how to get her hands on government-provided money. She has been quite smart about that. Like LBJ, John Vasconcellos, and like-minded Americans, my sister doesn't realize she is helping to perpetuate a system that is doomed to failure.
I can't stress it enough: With every social program that is put in place on top of programs already in place, with every new immigrant who feeds off the largess of a generous nation, there is less freedom for everyone else. Where and when will it stop?
I grieve for what our children and grandchildren will endure when we are gone.
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Musicians on the Wrong Side of History
Well said!
THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE
I worked for some brilliant and hard-working people in the 1970s. In the 1990s I prepared Peter F. Drucker's book, "Innovation and Entrepreneurship," for Harper & Row.
Here's the way I see it:
Attitudes toward big business changed when Hollywood began to portray wealth as an evil force. Social programs in place since Truman's presidency were multiplied by the Johnson administration, and this largess dependended on a high number of wage-earners. It wasn't long before a new tide of immigration took place. These were not the hard-working types who came before (we all know the work ethic of earlier immigrants), but people who were intent on "playing" the system. A system that is "played" by pregnant girls from Guatemala ... by men like the forensic psychiatrist from Pasadena who used his position to bilk the State of California. It takes about 30 years for such a system to become morally and financially bankrupt.
In California, while John Vasconcellos expounded his theories regarding self esteem, I watched as businesses everywhere endured increased regulation and taxation. I watched as the forensic psychiatrist I worked for processed hundreds of claims using people culled from the lines of the unemployed. California is a case study of how liberal thinkers -- men like John Vasconcellos -- were, through the legislation they passed, unwittingly destroying the very land they loved.
Fact: The working American of today is heavily burdened, and among the overburdened you will find entrepreneurs who, having been successful once, will choose to move their businesses to more favorable locations. This is what happened in California. Ireland, on the other hand, provides us with an example of how to turn things around. Here was a country who taxed enterprises out of business, then reversed course to become one of the best places to build your next plant. The financial crisis that began in the U.S. and spread across Europe hit Ireland hard, but their leaders consider raising taxes to be a last-resort measure.
Most people work to make a living, but the real money is earned by those with an honest desire to work. Businesses are created by entrepreneurs with vision and a desire to succeed. The government that places too heavy a burden on both the worker and the entrepreneur kills the proverbial Ggoose Who Laid the Golden Egg. It's a common ailment, for the governments who have done this are many. After all, why should anyone work hard if their profits will be seized, squandered and given to someone else?
Most young people in America today do not see the dangers of treading upon another person's rights or seizing money from one man to give to another.
Those who hold political office don't understand that the money they distribute -- and, often enough, waste -- has been EARNED by the hard-working wage-earner, who in turn pays a hefty portion of his wages to the government.
We've reached the point where those who hold government positions think the money is theirs to command. They never consider where the real source of wealth is: in the SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE. All they know is, the government has money and it's their job to spend it.
It goes without saying: If half the nation is receiving sustenance from the other half, and the wages of the other half decrease to the point where there is now AN OPPRESSED, DECLINING HALF struggling to fund government coffers, then you have an unsustainable future.
At the age of 67. I find myself living in a society that is litigious, full of rules and an abundance of people to enforce them. The population in general is unhappy. Young people everywhere are disrespectful, angry ... violent. To see where all this is headed, you have only to look to Russia and those countries that recently broke free of the Iron Curtain. Much like it was in the Germany and Russia of the 1940s, the America of today has raised a generation of pampered young who now tell their elders what to do.
It used to be a mark of abject failure to be "on the dole" but that attitude does not prevail today. I have a liberal-minded sister who prides herself on figuring out how to get her hands on government-provided money. She has been quite smart about that. Like LBJ, John Vasconcellos, and like-minded Americans, my sister doesn't realize she is helping to perpetuate a system that is doomed to failure.
I can't stress it enough: With every social program that is put in place on top of programs already in place, with every new immigrant who feeds off the largess of a generous nation, there is less freedom for everyone else. Where and when will it stop?
I grieve for what our children and grandchildren will endure when we are gone.