The Promise of America

In the 18th Century, people lived in societies where one's status in life was determined by one's birth. If you were born to a king, emperor or chief, you lived an exaulted lifestyle no matter what your personal worth. If you were born to a nobleman or the equivalent, you live in relative luxury with respect of the common man whether or not earned. If you were born to vast army of common people, you lived a life of grinding poverty and little respect, a condition from which there was no escape. If you were born into slavery, your life was an unending hell at worst, and merely intolerable if you were lucky. This was the nature of the world when America was created. In America, an entirely new kind of society was born. In America, people were able to succeed or fail based upon their own merits, not the accident of their birth. Paupers with no family could, through hard work and a little luck, become respected members of the community. There were no royal families. There were no noblemen. The goal of the society was to give everyone an equal opportunity for success in life. It was an astounding change from the rest of the globe.

Let me hasten to add that America was not perfect at its birth. Equal opportunity did not exist for everyone. Women did not get equal rights for well over a century and a half. Slavery persisted for eighty years until it was destroyed in a monumental battle which took the lives of 2% of all Americans. All sorts of social restrictions persisted until the passage of time and a great many struggles removed most of them from society. But by the 21st century, nearly every American has an equal opportunity to succeed based upon his or her own hard work and individual qualities. Success is not guaranteed; it still takes some luck, but the opportunity is there.

In other areas of the world, American equality of opportunity has been emulated. In places where this system has been copied, there has been (as in America) major economic growth. After all, few things encourage hard work and innovation more than the idea that the person making the effort will be able to keep the fruits of that labor. People who toiled long hours will do so if it will benefit their families and themselves. Few are willing to put in such effort if the benefit will go to others, be that the king, the lord, or the state.

In the 19th century, a competing idea arose in Europe for organizing a modern society. Control of life was to be ceded to the state. The benefits of work were to go to the state. In exchange, the state was to take care of the individuals. No one would be a success or a failure. Everyone would live an equal life.

There were a number of variations of this new formulation. Soviet Communism made everyone equal by taking away all wealth of any sort and making everyone equally poor. For a while the system functioned, but it devolved into a system in which the party workers became the new nobility. They were the ones who got the benefits of the system while the rest of the people were just the new serfs. After a while, the system crashed of its own weight; it could not create enough wealth to continue to function. German and Italian Fascism also took ownership of much of society's wealth. Again party membership provided the new nobility. The system began with a partnership with some of the old wealth, but it quickly moved past that partnership and submerged private initiative for state determinism. Of course, the fascists combined their economic structure with a perverted sort of Darwinism that relied on old prejudices. Not only did the state control the economy, but it used that control to eliminate all those who were deemed undesireable. Then there was the Socialist view. These systems functioned by providing a welfare state of ever more generous benefits. The benefits were funded by taking the fruits of the labor of the people through taxation and through nationalization of industries. These systems grew to prominence in much of Europe, but they have been receding in many places. In general, it is as Baroness Thatcher said years ago: eventually, these countries ran out of other people's money.

Back in America, we are now moving full tilt towards the system that Europe has already found to be a failure. We are increasing benefits to the population even without the funds to pay for these benefits. We are, in all likelihood, about to continue an assault on the folks who actually work hard and succeed, the people who create the wealth of our society. An increase in taxes on these folks will not break them. Nor will an increase in three different taxes break them, but it will be harder to overcome. Indeed, an increase in regulations that prevent business formation and success will not spell the end of the American experiment. But, if one takes all of this together, here is what one sees.

1) People successful in business are derided by the government as selfish. They are told that they do not do their fair share. The fact that someone has, through hard work for decades, created a business that provides a livelihood for hundreds of families is not celebrated. No, it is now attacked.

2) People who refuse to work for their own support are not made to suffer the consequences. The old saying that necessity is the mother of all invention is not wrong. If one needs to work in order to eat, one will find work. On the other hand, many people are perfectly happy to get by with government funding. Why work hard when there is no real need to do so? Indeed, most of these folks now expect that they have a right to support. They see no reason to try to succeed through hard work. Why would one want to become one of those evil rich people?

3) Those who are successful are having the fruits of success taken away. Tax increases mean that the benefits of success are diminished. Sure, if one is a major success, the taxes will not matter. But that misses the point. Most people who start businesses do not form the next Apple Computer. They start businesses which, if they last, provide a decent living for their owners and decent jobs with good wages for the employees. Squeezing those livings just makes the likelihood of success that much less. As a result, it means that fewer business ideas get brought to fruition.

4) Businesses that are successful are treated as if they are piggy banks to be raided and their needs are given no respect. Just think of the regulations that have been promulgated which will make coal burning power plants essentially obsolete. All those utilities with coal fired plants have been told in essence that they must close these plants. Investments worth tens of billions of dollars are being destroyed. Tens of thousands of jobs are being wiped out. And why is that? We are told that it is to fight air pollution, and that may actually be the reason. The problem, however, is that the new system does not consider the cost of this move. In the last fourty years since the first Earth Day was proclaimed by Richard Nixon, air pollution from coal fired plants has been reduced by about 98%. Now, the EPA is going after the last 2% in a move that will cost the industry and the country more than five times what it cost to eliminate the first 98%. But in our new system, the rights and needs of the private companies and their owners and employees are not to be considered. The government now knows best.

Sadly, this trend just keeps getting stronger and stronger. America is moving away from the very system that made it unique and a light to the rest of the world. Pretty soon, we will be just another third rate socialist state.