October 11, 2013
'I Am The Guilty
Man'
American Thinker
I am the reason liberals believe their policies and ideas will work in the
real world. I am the driven American entrepreneur.
Every time an entrepreneur accepts a directive from the government that will
harm his chance of earning a profit; every time a roadblock is put up and the
entrepreneur finds a way to adapt and keep moving on; every time a conservative
curses the policy of the liberal but still keeps running his business and
paying taxes... he confirms the liberal policy as a logical reality.
Why wouldn't liberals keep pushing their agenda? Why wouldn't they believe
their policies could work? We make their irrational ideas work for them. We
prove them right. Every time we open our doors in the morning and go to work on
the day's business, no matter what the obstacle... we make their policies
rational. Every day I press on with my small business and eight employees. If
my cash flow shrinks... I work harder. If regulations make my job more
difficult... I work longer hours. No liberal policy is rational. No liberal
proposition ever makes logical sense. Yet we press on despite smaller margins,
higher regulations, higher taxes, and further vilification by the American
Left.
You see, liberals are not guilty for destroying this country. I am guilty
for accepting their agenda and pushing forward even in the face of more people
that choose to produce nothing... yet consume everything.
You cannot eat your cake before you take the time to make it or earn the
money to buy it. To eat your cake first, you must become a leech and steal from
the efforts of others... producing nothing yet expecting everything. Society
cannot prosper within this context. Yet, I press on. I produce and I allow
the looters to steal from me.
These looters complain that the doors before them are locked and because of
this, need help from a central governing body to steal from me and give to
them. Those that throw away the key should not complain that the doors before
them are locked. Many decades ago, the body parasite was born in the liberal
mindset. slowly but surely dumbing down education and passing regulations to
make it legal to steal from the producers and give to the leeches. Understand
that "the key" is education and hard work. If you are not smart
enough to open the door before you, you are destined to keep running into it,
repeatedly, until the government shows up to give you an easier way. There is
no logic in this. All the same I continue, pressing on, producing for others...
proving that liberal policies work.
"This country, this product of reason, cannot survive based on the
morality of sacrifice," Ayn Rand (
Atlas Shrugged) said.
"America was not built by men who sought self-immolation or by men who
sought hand outs." People who gave up everything and gave of themselves to
create a new beginning built America. It was a chance for all men to produce
and reap the rewards of their production. Yet American liberals for decades
have acted as the apologists to the world for our success. Never acting
proudly, but rather disabled by some disease that overwhelmed them with guilt.
But the producers accepted the New Deal, we accepted welfare, we accepted
environmental regulations, we accepted greater and more abusive taxes. We
pushed on, keeping a smaller piece of the pie for ourselves but we continued
because we did not know any other way.
In the book
Atlas Shrugged, a comment is made by one of the lead
characters: "When those that produce must ask permission from those that
produce nothing, you will know that your society is doomed."
In President Obama's first term, a total of
$70
billion in new regulation costs were added to American business. Every
business owner faces challenges not thought of 100 years ago. For example, The
Rough and Ready Sawmill, a 91-year-old timber business in Oregon,
recently closed its doors forever. Due to the crippling effects of the
Endangered Species Act, the business could no longer survive
Furthermore, new entrepreneurs face greater challenges not heard of in the
past. Barriers to entry used to mean items such as finances, experience,
product knowledge, cost of goods, etc. Now you have to include regulatory rules
and procedures from central-planning bodies that think they know your industry
better than you. Capitalism used to take care of bad businesses all on its own
through competition, a defining attribute of this great nation. Those
establishments that were inept went out of business to be replaced by a better
version. Now, government tries to protect us from those less-than-mediocre
establishments through the rule of law... capitalism at its least efficient.
So, why do we push on? Because, the central power has us trapped like a
hamster in a wheel. Running as fast as we can until our hearts give out and we
die in that wheel. We run because we want to keep our homes and our cars. We
want to keep our children in dance school and Little League. We run, keeping a
smaller piece of the pie with every step we take. We run and make the liberal
agenda seem practical and rational to the left. Why would they change their
thinking? We have never given them reason to. Why would they accept that they
are wrong? We prove them right. They have built the perfect trap. They allowed
us to gain wealth by our production. More importantly, they allowed our
families, the ones we love, to get used to the comfort of our wealth. I could
not imagine telling my daughter that she can no longer go to dance school
because daddy quit his business to prove a point. Though, in the beginning,
this is exactly what we should have done. Instead of capitulating to the whims
of governing bodies, we should have resisted as a unified front. Government
relies 100 percent on the success of business to survive. The inverse is not
true. It was our ball, our playground, but we tried to play nice with a
vampire... in the end, our lifeblood is/was drained. Once we were used to the
spoils of success, the trap was sprung. They started taking it away, our reward
for hard work and self-sacrifice, little by little, making it harder to keep up
our standards. But yet we continue running.
This is why, as I initially stated, I accept the blame for the downfall of
America. I am the American Entrepreneur, the guilty one. I make the left...
right.
Charles Moore runs Triangle Benefit Services and Triangle Payroll
Services with his wife Deana Moore. Triangle has been in business since 1995,
employs eight people and is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
