Politicians and other oxygen thieves have no desire to advance us, and are not capable of improvement. They just hold on to the status que, as long as they are on top.
I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money”
President Barack Obama
April 28, 2010
This comment from Mr. Obama was during a discussion on Wall Street “reform” in Quincy IL. He apparently believes wealth accrual should have some limits. Of course he is not part of the “some” group. Since the presidency, his wealth has accumulated to 70-90 million dollars for no productive reason. Same with Former president William and Mrs. Bill Clinton, now reportedly worth 240 million. Some pigs are more equal than others.
The former president who swore he did not want to punish success is now campaigning for a man who openly wants to, Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
His statement lacked any connection to reality. El-Sayed said, “most billionaires don’t park their money making more businesses, they park it in the stock market.” He goes on to say, “If you’re serious in building the most productive economy, take that excess money and invest it in good schools, good infrastructure, health care and childcare.” I do find it curious that in the “minds” of liberals only government invest. Private wealth growth is a missed opportunity for “public” advancement. I wonder if he had ever looked at what billionaires do with their money?
Elon Musk almost went bankrupt twenty years ago as he started SpaceX, and now it’s worth over a trillion dollars. Mr. Musk also owns “SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, X, Neuralink, and APR Energy — plus several subsidiaries and former holdings” These companies employ over 150,000 people worldwide, making a lot more than minimum wage.
In 1994 Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com in his garage. Today he owns that, Blue Origin space launch systems and The Washington Post (loss leader there). Amazon.com alone employs over 1.5 million people worldwide.
Larry Page owns Alphabet.com, a company that employs millions with over 20 subsidiaries.
Sounds like they have invested where needed and countless people have come out better for it Mr. El-Sayed. Maybe if you (and Mr. Obama) had some real-world experience (like delivering a newspaper) you might understand that.
In 1987, Michael Douglas said something in the movie Wall Street that has become synonymous with 80s “greed and excess.” Addressing the shareholders of the fictional company Teldar Paper, Gordon Gekko said, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”
He was right, you need a better word, and there are plenty of them. Ambition. Drive. Focus. Motivation. Determination. Desire. Do you understand now Mr. El-Sayed? Entrepreneurs in any endeavor go forward because there is a need, and they can fill it. And what inspires them to do so? The profit motive.
Mr. Obama and Mr. El-Sayed seem to think only government can efficiently provide basic services. They are very much mistaken.
I’ve had discussions with younger people of how “great” we had it when the only phone company out there was Ma Bell (AT&T), a federally regulated monopoly. In 1982, a lawsuit settlement forced them to divest their local phone companies and allow competition for long distance. The first few years were painful, but in the long term the cost of telecommunications collapsed. An instate lone distance phone call that used to cost 10-25 cent a minute is now just an included part of your monthly service plan. Same with intrastate phone calls.
An excellent book is The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology, from Herbert Hoover to the Smartphone. One of the points I remember was the Federal Communications Commission was looking at expanded portable telephone service. The “smart” people believed it would top out at around one million users in the US. One staffer mentioned “No one will ever use this to call his wife about picking up something from the grocery store.”
Seems like we don’t need more experts like that. We need more motivated people who will provide goods and services for people, as long as they’re not interfered with. Steve Job’s immortal quote, “Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do.” Entrepreneurs can do that. Bureaucrats cannot.
NFL legend Vince Lombardi famously said, “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” Be those sports, medicine, engineering, writing, or creating a better widget. We need to progress in all those fields (and more we have not discovered yet. Who knew of “artificial intelligence” five years ago?) to continue advancing. The private sector will be the source of that advancement.
The government will not be a source, but at best will stay out of the way. Leftists like Obama and El-Sayed will hopefully be pushed out of the way for more intelligence and capable people. Remember Thomas Payne, “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.
Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers.
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