Is It Too Late for America?

After watching tonight's debate, I found myself really dismayed at the rhetoric coming from both of the candidates. Although I think Bush may have actually outscored Kerry, I came away feeling like maybe it doesn't really matter.

Bush's response to the question about what he'd say to someone whose job has been outsourced tells the story. He immediately started talking the "government is going to help you" talk. I wonder what Thomas Jefferson, were he alive today, might say in response to the same question. I can't help but believe it'd go something like this:

Ours is a free market economy. That necessarily implies that the economy is dynamic. Consumers are in charge - they decide what they'll buy, and at what price, by choosing from the alternatives available. In a time when technology is advancing at a rapid pace, we must expect that the options for consumers will evolve at the same pace. This requires workers to be forward thinking. It requires them to recognize the direction of the economy and to develop the skills that will be in demand as things change. The worker who gets a job and then assumes that the job will always be there is gambling with his or her livelihood. Indeed, the US economy has progressed from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, and now to an information economy. This means that workers have a responsibility to develop skills that are valuable in this new economy. So, to the person who has lost a job due to outsourcing, I'd say you're lucky to be living in a country where the opportunities to reinvent yourself are everywhere. You may have to take a lower-paying job at night while you train during the day for a new career. It may be very hard work. But this is America. Immigrants come here with nothing and manage to succeed. You can, too. Opportunities are everywhere. You just have to be willing to do what it takes to seize them. Get to work!

That is an appeal to personal responsibility. That's what America was founded upon. It wasn't about the state providing for the people. It was about people providing for themselves. Alas, things are drastically different today. They are so different that is a political death sentence to make the previous statement. The people simply will not stand for being told that their careers are their responsibility. The entitlement mentality is now the majority mentality.

I am reminded of the following quote, which is attributed to a Scottish professor named Alexander Hamilton (although snopes.com claims they can't verify it):

A warning ... circa 1787 re the fall of the Athenian Republic:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money (generous gifts) from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilization has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence.
From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependency;
from dependence back into bondage.

I think we're somewhere in between complacency and apathy these days. Our education system is such that children are not taught personal responsibility. They are not taught the basics of free market economics. They are taught that America is, more often than not, responsible for the ills of the world. Essentially, they are hamstrung to make good decisions about public policy when they reach voting age. The bottom line is that our republic is in big trouble.

But I'm not about to become a pessimist. I will maintain the hope that our country can reverse its current course. Maybe it'll take another 9/11 to cement in the minds of the electorate the course that lies before us. Maybe it'll take nationalizing healthcare to make voters realize that the free market is the best mechanism to ensure the efficient provision of medical care. Maybe it'll take raising the tax rates on the wealthy to the 90% level, as it was prior to Reagan, to get people to realize that it is the rich who drive prosperity for everyone. Maybe it'll take the expansion of the Patriot Act to the point of shattering personal liberty to get folks to recognize that checks and balances are essential in government. Maybe it'll take the destruction of intellectual property laws to get the masses to understand that medical research costs astounding amounts of money that can't be assembled without the prospect of profits that offset the risks of investing. Who knows?

So, to voters, I say, vote for whomever you want. They're both losers, so we can count on the status quo more than anything else. As for me, I'll continue to work toward insulating myself and my family from the effects of opportunistic politicians and their supposedly entitled supporters. That's the best I can do.