For America to develop its full potential as a country, its leaders must promote and encourage the individual success of its citizens. After all, your success blesses others!
The Right to Excel and Fail
As Americans, we have the right to the pursuit of happiness, not the right to happiness itself. We have the right to equal opportunity, but not the right to equal outcomes. We have the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail. We have the right to make the choices in our lives we believe will make us happy. If we make wise choices, then we have the right to enjoy the fruits or effects of those choices. If we end up making the wrong choices, then we must naturally suffer the negative consequences.
The Option of Working Harder & Smarter
Fortunately, we then have the right to learn from our mistakes and make better choices in the future. We have the option of paying a bigger price and of earning a bigger reward. We have the right to plan more, read more, learn more, work more, practice more, risk more and become more than the person next to us. This means we also have the right to be better and achieve better results. We can exercise the equal opportunity to become unequal, or we can choose to be average.
The Politics of Mediocrity
Nothing is quite so damaging to the future of America as the proliferation of resentment and envy toward the minority of peak performing men and women who are frequently and collectively referred to by the media as “the rich.” This negative attitude toward the financially successful is manifested in campaign slogans promising to “soak the rich” and “let’s make them pay their fair share.” But could there be anything more cowardly than a politician seeking to gain power by dividing Americans by economic class? I call this type of political warfare, “The Politics of Mediocrity,” and it is, no doubt, toxic to the American spirit.
Gold Is Best Worn By Those Who Earn It
Promising to punish, through higher taxes, those who’ve already excelled financially and succeeded (As many Americans would love to do) sends a mediocre message to the rest of the population. It is like taxing a gold medal winner in the Olympics. We could call it “The Phelps Tax.” Imagine, whoever wins the gold must have his or her medal melted down and redistributed to the second and third place finishers whose medals would then be redistributed to those who did not even place in the race. This would spread the wealth around a bit.
What do you think? The fact that Phelps had a clear goal, outworked his competition, and made maximum use of his God-given talent is immaterial. It simply isn’t fair that one athlete should succeed so greatly when so many other hard-working athletes have to return home with no medal at all.  Olympic gold is best worn by Michael Phelps and money is best spent by the individual who earned it.
A 4:8 America Is Excellent and Worthy of Praise
America was founded on the principles of self-reliance, limited government, private property, individual initiative, hard work, and daring. Individualism has made America the great country it is today. Consider the American lifestyle today without the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Federal Express, Amazon.com, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Ford, Home Depot, and Kodak…..all companies founded by exceptional individuals and all of which add tremendous value to our lives.
A Little History…In the Name of Fairness
During the national crises created by World War I and World War II, the American people began to allow more and more government involvement in the economy through taxation and regulation. Sound familiar? Then, as American prosperity soared, many began to believe it was only fair and even “right” for the government to take some away from those who were doing well and pass it along to those who were not doing quite so well. Many economists and academics began to embrace the socialistic concept of controlling the means of production as well as the distribution of goods produced.
Socialism Is Not an Accident
Along the way, the idea of reshuffling America’s wealth became a very popular and often effective political strategy. Politicians would be in charge of taking from those who produced more and giving to those who produced less. Since the percentage of those who do really well (the top producers) tends to be quite small, it’s fairly easy to gain mass support for taxing them. In other words, if you take from Peter and give to Paul, you will very likely have the vote of Paul, and Paul represents the majority of votes. This perpetual dependence on government rather than self, spreads like social cancer, but plays very well to the lower side of human nature.
The Something for Nothing Obsession
This Robin Hood tactic of penalizing the successful and re-appropriating their assets would never even get off the ground in America unless it were fueled by the natural human tendency to try to get something for nothing. This is an all too fashionable fantasy which is always shattered in the long run.
When you try to get something for nothing you become nothing. You will only succeed financially and otherwise to the degree that you are able to resist the something-for-nothing urge that is so pervasive in our society. And all lasting success comes from putting in far more than you plan to take out. When individuals, via governmental interference, consume without producing, then others must produce without consuming.
Make This Promise, Achieve Genuine Success
Make a promise to yourself that you will expect rewards only after you create authentic value for others. Decide to consume only after first producing. These decisions will boost your self-worth and your potential for great success in the long run.
Remember, when you punish the achievers, you hurt most everyone else as an unintended, secondary consequence. Abraham Lincoln said, “You cannot help the poor by tearing down the rich. You cannot help the wage earner by hurting the wage payer.” For a society to prosper, it must never forget who creates the jobs.
The Class Envy Strategy
The creative minority who take responsible, persistent action toward their dreams often become the envy of those who stand by and just watch or report. Left out of the popular debate are the endless stories of true American enterprise, stories of incredible work habits, stories of entrepreneurs scarred with years of sacrifice, stories of individuals overcoming obstacles and thousands of other efforts hidden from view that, brick by brick, build the American dream. And those who promote the idea of assessing a punitive tax on this super productive minority seem to forget the lessons of history.
Who Needs Innovation Anyway?
You can look around the globe and see the destructive consequences of societies like the Soviet Union who, in the name of fairness and equality, tried to disallow success. Do your own research. Is there a single country that has punished its producers that you believe America should seek to emulate? These societies starved themselves from the ideas, innovation, services, products and jobs triggered by the so-called “rich.” As a result, they were unable to thrive and they eventually collapsed. While the strategy of class warfare succeeds in winning elections from time to time, it never really helps the intended beneficiaries (unless that is the politician) and, in the long run, hurts America by eroding and undermining the principles upon which it was built. To argue, even elegantly, against personal initiative, self-reliance and individual success is to take a cheap shot at the American dream.
Join The Magnificent Minority
Instead, become a member of the Magnificent Minority. Reject “mutual responsibility” and accept complete responsibility for both your actions and your results. Acknowledge that you are totally responsible for your success. Not the government, not your boss, not your parents, and not society as a whole. Only you. Despite the long-winded promises to the contrary, no one is coming to the rescue! Only you have the power to make the individual choices that will accumulate into the fruits of an exciting, successful, and satisfying life. Remember, the pursuit and attainment of joy-filled success is absolutely up to you. Choose to take the initiative and you’ll find opportunities you never imagined existed. It’s the right thing to do…and your success blesses others!
Copyright © 2008 by Tommy Newberry. All Rights Reserved.