by Tina Grazier
Abundance and plenty are not all that is needed to sustain a healthy, productive and happy life. Money and things will not bring contentment; in fact they can make us pretty miserable without a strong moral fiber to keep perspective and grounding. The pursuit of abundance and plenty is necessary, however, if we hope to live in a society free of abject poverty, misery and despair. Wealth, and the opulence and extravagance of privilege, is the exclusive fortune of royalty, elites, dictators and tyrants in many countries around the world. In America, when freedom and property rights are assured, wealth can be acquired by anyone with the gumption and dedication to make it happen. Others with less ambition achieve prosperity and the life they desire depending on personal effort and wise management of resources and earnings.The beauty of the American system is that the pursuit of abundance and plenty creates greater prosperity for all.
In our parents and grandparents America the blessing of freedom, coupled with the ideals they held dear, served to open the door of opportunity and plenty following an unnecessary depression and an unavoidable war. As the nation prospered abundance, if not wealth, was soon readily available to nearly everyone. The price paid for this good fortune was a level of dedication, discipline and moral fiber that few in our own time ever experience. It required a hearty spirit and a strong desire to participate and contribute.
Freedom, as we are currently discovering, demands constant vigilance. Morals and values must be maintained and passed on to be kept alive and working in society. The rewards of such vigilance offer a return on the investment of a healthy and vibrant society. In the past half century we have managed to trash the ideals our parents lived by and squander the blessings of abundance that flowed from their dedication leaving us in a horrific financial and social mess. Can we learn from our mistakes? Will we relearn and teach the ideals that are vital to our survival, health, and happiness or will we slide into third world misery?
Some Americans believe that our troubles can be laid at the feet of a corrupt corporate world. They speak of the “haves” and “have-nots” with the haves taking more and more without sufficiently sharing or giving back. Higher taxes and more government control, oversight, and distribution are the solutions they say will reverse this unfair dynamic and cure our financial woes. “Take from the rich” and “spread the wealth around” have become the rallying cries to stir the masses in support of these notions and fixes. But corporate owners and investors are not the takers of society; they are the producers. They are the risk takers that create opportunity for others. They spread not only wealth through our society but the opportunity to work and experience the dignity of providing for one’s own needs and wants. If managed properly and carefully, this opportunity can make it possible for anyone to grow rich beyond their own expectations.
In contrast, those who are able-bodied but choose to live on their neighbors’ labors are the real takers in society. Likewise workers who demand and expect automatic raises year after year along with more or better benefits, increased vacation time and days off, earlier retirement, and a lighter work load become the takers. People like these are stingy both in personal effort and monetary risk taking, offering less than they put in and investing as little as possible of their own money to increase the general wealth and prosperity of the nation. Their contribution is the purchase of things that they want beyond need, a self interested contribution that is no different from the corporate self interest that is often rightly called deplorable. Politicians that fail to manage the affairs of government wisely, provoking waste, create a net drain on prosperity. Those that fall further from grace and choose to skim what they can through crooked deals and associations are big takers, in fact, in many cases they become thieves. The greed and selfishness of these comes not as a result of freedom but of vacancy of principles and ideals, just as it is with those individuals in the corporate world that fail to maintain good character and dignity.
We live at a time when greed, thievery and political trickery are not just tolerated but admired. People think that it’s a sign of brilliance if a politician wins an election or gets a bill passed through deception, bribery or cheating. The most sycophantic among us genuinely believes this behavior is smart or clever. We have lost our way. Greed and corruption result from moral decay, a depravity that permeates our society and has just about brought us to our knees, whether in business ot politics. Business, born of the entrepreneurial spirit and the industry of the people, is the vehicle that creates opportunity and the abundance that follows. Ideals are fuel that feed the spirit to make us become givers rather than takers. In such an environment we all will prosper.
As we address our shared economic woes we would be wise to demand higher moral and ethical standards from ourselves and our leadership as our parents and grandparents once did. The following, in no particular order, are among the ideals and values that theWWII generation valued:
Strong work ethic; see work as a privilege and value all work as honorable
Strong commitment to family and faith
Personal responsibility, honesty & adherence to the law
Discipline (of self and of children)
Frugality and charity
Respect for authority
Humility
Loyalty
Emotional maturity
Teamwork
Focus, perseverance, and stability
The steady societal drift away from these ideals began decades ago in America. California was among those states at the leading edge of the shift, forging the way with progressive ideas and attitudes and a progressive agenda in our schools, courts and legislature. We plunged ahead with abandon, proclaiming intention and goals in the name of compassion for others, unbounded personal expression, and self-interested gratification and pleasure. Sometimes skipping, much too often stomping, we made our way through the wilderness of “new” ideas and never bothered to grow up or look back to monitor the result or notice the destruction littering the path behind our footfalls. Even on the rare occasion when we did notice, dismissive explanations and excuses poured forth and with elaborate justifications and denials we covered our tracks.
Shamefully it is our own children who are the benefactors of this flagrant, self- indulgent, decades-long orgy. We now owe it to them, and to future generations, to reaffirm sound principles and ideals and restore the level of freedom and property rights that worked to create a land of plenty; a land that reflected the promise of dignity, grace, and deep human satisfaction for all. We can begin by stating obvious truths: California is broke; jobs have left the state; our prisons are filled to the brim; families are broken; children are being short changed (and sometimes raped or abused) in our communities, homes and schools; the majority of poor have not been uplifted in spirit or economy; and broken state government just keeps getting fatter and fatter. This inflated government bubble is now positioned to pop…devastating pain and suffering will follow.
In California the Governator, once again, proposed a strong dose of medicine:
“Schwarzenegger budget would eliminate welfare,” by Kevin Yamamura and Susan Ferriss – The Sacramento Bee
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked lawmakers Friday to eliminate the state’s welfare program starting in October and dramatically scale back in-home care for the elderly and disabled as part of his May budget revision to close a $19.1 billion deficit. ** The Republican governor also proposed cuts to state worker compensation. Besides asking for a 5 percent pay cut, 5 percent payroll cap and 5 percent increased pension contribution, Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting one day per month of pay in exchange for leave credit. ** The proposal would affect all state workers under the governor’s authority, regardless of whether they are general fund or special fund employees. Employees would not be able to cash out any of this unused leave credit when they leave state service. The plan would replace the three-day-a-month furloughs, which are due to end June 30. ** Schwarzenegger said the sour economy, the failure of the Legislature to make cuts he proposed in January and the federal government’s failure to come up with about $7 billion leaves policymakers with no choice but to make deep cuts.
He suggested even more cuts but what’s the point in sharing them here? These are proposals made by a governor that our arrogant legislature will likely ignore. Rather than admit that the bloated bureaucratic labyrinth we’ve created is unsustainable, they prefer to wander the same dusty road that will surely lead to a depressing dead end. Many other states and the federal government suffer under the same economic idiocy and moral decay.
A transformation of hearts and souls is needed to rectify our problems and return our country to prosperity and opportunity. This transformation can only begin with truth followed by strong doses of discipline, frugality, and for those strong enough, risk. At least half of the populace is willing to move down that road. One Republican candidate in particular has an idea aimed at the federal government but certainly adaptable in spirit at the state, local and personal levels. He’s declared a war on arrogance, beginning with discipline and austerity, as reported in The Wall Street Journal:
TUCSON, Ariz.–Andy Goss knows exactly what he’ll do if he wins his long-shot race for Congress. First, he’ll cut lawmakers’ pay 40% to $104,400. Then the former Army interrogator will use the savings to build a Capitol Hill barracks where all 535 senators and representatives will be required to live.”If our military has to live in such a fashion, I think we congressmen should also,” says Mr. Goss, one of four men seeking the Republican nomination in southeastern Arizona.
Unusual suggestions are coming from many quarters. The people are beginning to press for accountability and sound policy. We can try these things or we can wait till hyperinflation and a deep depression sets in…it’s our choice. A little austerity, a dose of humility, a big dollop of discipline and hard work…these might shake the sensibilities of Capitol Hill lawmakers and act to remind them of the millions of Americans who are out of work, out of homes and out of cash. I don’t know what would shake up the White House…unless it was a landslide victory next November for a bunch of untried, but eager, candidates. That’s at least one thing the American people can make happen.
Last week’s news informs us that more American jobs have been lost, European nations are in serious trouble, the stock market is incredibly skittish, the Middle East continues to heat up, and our enemies are forming alliances against us. These are ominous signs that should be signaling our congressmen and our President that we need to alter course. But the powers at the top continue toward destruction and refuse to yield to the obvious. A weak America will not support a strong defense of America. It’s time to grow up and get serious.
We Americans still have the power to ensure a prosperous future for ourselves and our posterity. But if we don’t act now we may soon no longer have that power. Americans want honest hard working representatives who put America first and who are driven by the desire to serve. We must let them kniow we don’t want hand outs! We do want jobs and opportunity; we want to provide for ourselves, and we want a strong and safe America.
Government must get out of the way so the people will be empowered to create prosperity. The producers in particular need to know that they can keep the money they earn to reinvest and build strong companies. Producers need to know that the regulation placed on them for safety and equity will be supportive rather than punishing, and simplified rather than complicated. Workers need to realize that their own wealth and prosperity depends on how they live their lives and the choices they make. They need to stop thinking of government or business as their ticket to abundance and wealth. Responsibility for accumulated wealth resides in the individual just as responsibility of honor and character reside in the individual. Wealth will not make us happy but we all must understand that the pursuit of abundance is indeed necessary.