How Selfish Are You?

Silly me.  I thought that the American dream was to prosper, then be able to use your accumulated assets as you saw fit:  purchase a home, take your family on a vacation, donate to the charities of your choice, save for retirement.

Little did I know that I and all the other Americans who engaged in such activities were nothing more than selfish!

“The point is, though, that — and it’s not just charity, it’s not just that I want to help the middle class and working people who are trying to get in the middle class — it’s that when we actually make sure that everybody’s got a shot – when young people can all go to college, when everybody’s got decent health care, when everybody’s got a little more money at the end of the month – then guess what? Everybody starts spending that money, they decide maybe I can afford a new car, maybe I can afford a computer for my child. They can buy the products and services that businesses are selling and everybody is better off. All boats rise. That’s what happened in the 1990s, that’s what we need to restore. And that’s what I’m gonna do as president of the United States of America.

“John McCain and Sarah Palin they call this socialistic,” Obama continued. “You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness.”

Should our nation provide good schools, safe neighborhoods, a fair judicial system and infrastructure so that all who live here have a shot at the American dream?  You bet.  And I am happy to work and pay taxes so this can occur.

At some point, however, hard work and diligence means reaching goals we set for ourselves and the freedom to chose what we wish to do with what we have achieved.  Competition and striving for the sky isn't selfish; it's what made our nation great.

Comments

[Paul Hsieh]

The kind of selfishness that Obama apparently opposes (and as Glenn Reynolds noted was promoted by Ayn Rand in her famous book "The Virtue of Selfishness") is a completely noble and moral American virtue. This country was founded on the principle that men and women had the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" free from government interference and tyranny.

Many immigrants (such as my parents) came to this country precisely to be able to work hard, prosper, and give their children a chance for a better life. They came to this country with little more than the clothes on their back, but did well over the years, sent two children to college and medical school, and are now enjoying a well-earned and comfortable retirement. Their life has been a real-life embodiment of the American dream.

If we want America to remain a beacon of hope to millions around the world, we should re-affirm our commitment to free markets and capitalism, and reject calls for more socialism and "redistribution of wealth".

This country is great precisely because it allows people like my parents to attain selfish goals such as their lives and happiness. Americans should be proud of that fact, not condemn it.

[Greg]

Your killing me guys. Paul you wrote this:

"Many immigrants (such as my parents) came to this country precisely to be able to work hard, prosper, and give their children a chance for a better life. They came to this country with little more than the clothes on their back, but did well over the years, sent two children to college and medical school, and are now enjoying a well-earned and comfortable retirement. Their life has been a real-life embodiment of the American dream."

Excuse me, did not Barack Obama do the same thing. He was not born with a silver spoon, he worked hard, studied hard and excelled at Harvard where he became President of the Law Review. He went on to become a constitutional professor and instead of heading into a place where he could of made a lot of money, went to work in the community. Sounds like a real selfish guy does it not?

If you can compare and contrast that with John McCain who got into the navel academy because of his father's and grandfather's name (not know for sure if that is how he got in) but he finished 895 out of 899 in his class. How do you justify that. How about Bush and him getting into school and everything and everything he got. I hope you are not going to tell me he got where he got to on brains and hard work. Sounds a bit to me like Affirmative Action so to say.

So which candidate has lived more the life of your parent's and which has not? Your analogy kind of falls short when you view how each got to where they got doesn't it?

Next you finish your comment with this silly statement.

"More socialism and "redistribution of wealth".

Is that the best you guys can come up with? Let's get for real. John McCain has called Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan his heroes. If we were to believe the Republican spin of things, then yes they too were socialist.

Teddy Roosevelt one if McCain's heroes and a Republican was very much an advocate of what's called progressive taxation, that is the rich pay more than the poor in terms of taxes.

Do you care to guess what is one of the most effective popular programs we've had in the last three decades? I'll let you guys into a little secret it was called the earned income tax credit. It's a program if you're a working person or couple and you're below the poverty line, the government will actually give you money. That's a redistributed program. It's a program which takes money from the upper classes and gives it to the lowerto the working poor. Now who started that program? The answer would be Republican hero Ronald Reagan.

So I think that these arguments are clearly show you have no clue about the realities of what we've been doing through public policy over the last 30 years. There has been redistributed, it's has just been been redistributed upwards.

I'll even clue you into another secret. Well, it is not really a secret it is a known fact. As a country we have always done better with a growing and emerging middle class. With a growing and emerging middle class, you see consumer consumption increase into the goods and services that drive our economy. Hey guys, if you have a shrinking middle class, how do you expect small business or any company to thrive here in the United States. Guess what? The Census Bureau has tracked the economic fortunes of affluent, middle-class and poor American families for six decades. The real incomes of middle-class families grew more than twice as fast under Democratic presidents as they did under Republican presidents. Even more remarkable, the real incomes of working-poor families (at the 20th percentile of the income distribution) grew six times as fast when Democrats held the White House. Only the incomes of affluent families were relatively impervious to partisan politics, growing robustly under Democrats and Republicans alike.

So I ask what in the world are you talking about, or are you just spouting Republican talking points you been fed to by the RNC? If any of you have any facts to back up anything you state please bring some forth, but I am assuming you can't so I will just put the nail in this coffin.

Other Republican Presidents who supported "redistribution of wealth"

"I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective: a graduated inheritance tax increasing rapidly with the size of the estate.”
- Theodore Roosevelt

“Every dollar spent by the government must be paid for either by taxes or by more borrowing with greater debt. The only way to make more tax cuts now is to have bigger and bigger deficits and to borrow more and more money. Either we or our children will have to bear the burden of this debt. This is one kind of chicken that always comes home to roost. An unwise tax cutter, my fellow citizens, is no real friend of the taxpayer."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

In 1986, Reagan signed legislation greatly increasing the earned income tax credit, a credit for low-income workers that reduces the impact of payroll taxes in order to boost take-home pay above poverty levels. When the credit is more than the amount of federal income taxes owed by an individual, that person receives a tax “refund.”

“It's the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”
- Ronald Reagan