President's Attack On Success Shows U.S. Falling, Not Rising
In a speech on July 13 in Roanoke, Va., President Obama said this about successful people: "You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hard-working people out there. ... If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help."
Why limit the discussion to the United States?
Everywhere on our planet, there are smart and hard-working people striving for success and a decent life. Like in the United States, every country has people building roads and using these roads to get to places of work; some people are good teachers, some are good farmers, etc. Most human societies have the same general components.
I am sure Barack Obama saw plenty of smart and hard-working people in Indonesia, where he lived as a child. Why is Indonesia, a country very rich in natural resources, poor?
My husband, our friends and I worked hard in the USSR. Fresh from college, full of enthusiasm, we were in our prime years.
Soviet communists had created a system according to teachings by Karl Marx. This system was based on the principles of equality: Rich exploiters (private business owners) didn't have a place in this "workers' paradise." Therefore, entrepreneurs were outlawed.
There were many talented inventors in the Soviet Union. To register their invention and obtain a patent, they had to include names of official communist leaders as co-creators, putting their names above their own. If government leaders could not comprehend the idea or its relevance to the future, the invention died.
The same applied to works of art. In this "just society," people were whipped into conformity. Smart or not smart, all were equally poor.
Government central planners in the USSR, or China, or Cuba, didn't invent modern technology, and Soviet-made computers of the late 1970s were imitations of IBM's, created from stolen blueprints.
Today, the modern Russian language is full of modified English terminology for all high-tech gadgets.
An Associated Press article dated June 4 and titled "Is Obama a Socialist?" stated:
"In much of today's world, socialism lacks the contentious overtones that it has in America."
Are they talking about Europe, where younger generations are realizing that their parents bankrupted their countries?
How come only the U.S. was (at least before this president) the land of opportunities for all? What made this country different?
In the same speech in Roanoke, President Obama actually had an answer:
"Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive."
Why, then, does he want to fundamentally transform this country?
In contrast to all centrally governed countries, U.S. government directives are not required to implement new ideas. Most of the time, venture capitalists or banks finance the progression of an idea to the final outcome.
If an enterprise is successful — all benefit: the inventor, the venture capitalist and the society.
Why, then, do the president, his campaign apparatus and media demonize the very system that is the engine of American progress?
On his campaign bus tour, in early July, the president said: "I believe we rise or fall as one nation, as one people."
It's very strange to hear a president talking about the fall of the nation he presides over.
It is diametrically opposite to Ronald Reagan's inspiring vision of the United States — "a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds." It's also so different from the declaration of statesmen such as Winston Churchill: "We shall never surrender!"
Under this president, which direction are we moving "forward" to: the rise or the fall?
When more workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than the number of jobs created by the economy — were we rising or falling?
When enrollment in the food-stamp program increased by 44% from 2009 to 2011, were we rising or falling.?
When in a very dangerous world the U.S. military is weakened and the borders are not protected — are we rising or falling?
When a growing web of government agencies and tsars are taxing, penalizing, mandating, forbidding and limiting citizens' liberties, and when entrepreneurship is demonized — are we rising or falling?
For those who study world history, the difference between government planners vs. private entrepreneurs is dramatically apparent.
Knowledge of world history and the fate of people around the world put America's uniqueness in perspective.
Did Barack Obama study any history? Hard to say, as his college records are sealed.
• Kunin lived in the Soviet Union until 1980, working as a civil engineer. She is now a retired software developer living in Connecticut |
