A Tangled Web

Here's a great interview with Peter Schweizer, author of Throw Them All Out, talking about congressional insider trading, the hypocrisy of Warren Buffett, and the socialism enjoyed by the privileged classes.

Have a listen.

They think they own you.

They think they have a right to take part of what you've earned. Take a part of what you've built. And they get to decide how much they will take–and for what purposes.

It's no surprise. You've known this for a long time. But you may not have understood why.

It's because of a bit of wishful thinking. An imaginary thing known as the “social compact”. Simply put, it goes something like this: "Everyone benefits from being part of society. Therefore, everyone owes something to that society, and it is justifiable to take what is owed by force."

They think they helped you. They want to take credit for your hard work. They think all their help interference in the marketplace was at least partially responsible for your success. Nay, they think that your success was impossible without them. And that you ought to be much more grateful.

They think they own a piece of you, and your output. They think they have an open, indisputable claim they can cash in whenever they want.

Don't believe me? Read on...

All your factories are belong to us

Here's Elizabeth Warren’s rant from a recent campaign appearance.

She lays out the belief system as plain as day. Right out there for everyone to see. And she's getting a hearty round of applause for it.

“I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.

“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.

“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

This is how they think, and this is why you are not free–and never will be.

Now you see the nature of the trap. The trap baited with "free" benefits–education, roads, police, fire departments, etc. Because there is a large and growing class of people who see those shared benefits–which none of us had any choice but accept–and only some of us asked for–as a claim on your productivity, your creativity, your spirit, or any other tasty morsel they see laying about.

This raises a few questions: How hard should you work for people who hold these beliefs? Why should you continue working hard for them? At what point do you throw in the towel and just let them rot? Because, as you can see, you're not working for your benefit. You're working for theirs. You owe them.

This is why you must be supremely wary when someone promises public benefits or other programs paid for with the public purse. And this is why you need to stop letting the government throw these "benefits" at you. This is why you need to stop wanting those benefits– and why you need to stop asking for or accepting them. You need to stop voting for, supporting, or electing politicians who promise you goodies.

The greater the perceived benefit from public spending, the more you owe to society. At least that's how some people, like Ms. Warren, see it–and that group is large and growing.

This is why you should stop believing in the lie of the benevolent government, government as benefactor and government as helping hand.

Because the hand that helps is also the hand that plucks the wallet from your pocket. The hand that helps is also the hand that can slip on shackles.

Addendum

Can you imagine how they'll act once they're "providing" everyone's health care?

Do you get the picture yet?

Link Love-In

Linked at Silicon Graybeard's most excellent exposition on who pays more than their fare share of taxes. Thanks!

Update1

Seems the blogosphere has spawned a rather nice collection of snarky responses to Warren's "we own your ass" meme. Go read it!

When Social Security implodes, it seems that only politicians and retirees will be surprised.

Well, OK, the kneepad media will feign surprise, too.

I suppose they'll be shocked, SHOCKED! when it happens. We'll hear the familiar cries: Why didn't someone warn us?

Then the finger-pointing will begin in earnest. Where did the money go? Was it the conservatives politicians? Was it the liberal politicians?

Got news for ya, buddy. It was just about all of them. At worst, they took part in the scam. At best, they looked the other way. Even the few who tried to warn you had to back away from dealing with Social Security, the third rail of American politics.