Posted on 07/18/2012 9:37:52 AM PDT by jazusamo
One of the many great things about Paul Johnsons magisterial A History of the American People is that he begins that history in the Sixteenth Century. There was an identifiable, culturally distinguishable American People long before there was a Revolutionary War, a Constitution, or a central government. The American People, by their industry and ingenuity, didnt just build successful businesses they built the most successful nation in history and all, somehow, without HUD, Fannie, Freddie, the EPA, OSHA
In one of a thousand vignettes, Johnson tells the story of the founding of Springfield:
Elijah Miles, who moved to the Sangamon River country in 1823, left a record of how he founded Springfield. It was then only a stake in the ground. He marked out an 18-foot-square site for a store, went to St. Louis to buy a 25-ton stock of goods, chartered a boat, shipped his stock to the mouth of the Sangamon, and then had his boat and goods towed upriver by five men with a 300 foot tow-rope. Leaving his goods on the riverside As no one lived near, I had no fear of thieves he walked 50 miles to Springfield, hired waggons and teams, and so got his stuff to the new town,where his store was the first to open. It was the only one in a district later divided into fourteen counties, so many had to come more than 80 miles to trade. Springfield grew up around him.
The president can try telling Americans they cant build businesses, careers, communities and lives without his broke and broken Leviathan, but history and common sense prove him wrong every time. Ive listened to some of this debate with fascination. Not at Obama there is nothing surprising about his cockamamie claim that individual Americans could not have built their successful ventures without his central-planners providing the infrastructure of roads, bridges, police, firemen, schools and the like. What surprises me is the response of some on our side who argue that it was the other way around that it was the successful ventures that prompted all the infrastructure.
Why would we concede the infrastructure to Obama? When it comes to human beings living in society and helping each other, why do we allow the president to treat we/us as if it were synonymous with the federal government. We built roads and bridges, policed our communities, put out fires, taught our children, and built our businesses before there ever was a federal government.
It is certainly true that, in modern times, the government has gotten itself involved in the infrastructure business. Very often, that has not been a positive development. At Reason, Matt Welch has a very interesting column about the building of the Golden Gate Bridge which Obama likes to cite as a federal government success story that benefitted everyone and, so the story goes, made possible the success of the evil one-percenters.
The story is fiction. As Welch shows, the federal government did everything it could to prevent the Golden Gate from being built. The local people and businesses wanted it; but the Defense Department did not want it built and owned the land on either side of the channel, which it refused for a long time to sell. When it finally agreed to sell, it would not sell to the developers, only to a state commission. And the feds did not participate other than to try to derail the project. That is, federal contractor unions held up the works, trying to extort their piece of the pie. Finally, because of the markets collapse and the Great Depression, the bond financing ran into trouble, resulting in more delay until, finally, private capital the personal wealth of A.P. Giannini came to the rescue. The bridge was completed $1.7 million under budget, Welch recounts, using non-union labor and private contractors.
Welch ends with a fabulous point. In todays dollars, the $35 million cost of the Golden Gate Bridge translates into $530 million. Thats far less than one percent of Obamas stimulus package. So, he asks, where the hell are our new Golden Gates? What exactly has been the return on all this added investment?
Human beings are social beings who act in their individual self-interest which, common sense tells us, is often but far from always personal gain. Obama thinks the individual American, particularly if he is an entrepreneur, compares unfavorably to the noble federal government as if the government were some altruistic we just looking to help. When the feds help, however, they are often an overbearing presence that depresses individual initiative. Those who run government are in it to wield power, mainly redistributing benefits to their favored, connected cronies. Government stifles the individual more than it empowers him.
The president should not be able to get away with equating such a self-interested behemoth with us the people who help each other and make their communities, and ultimately the country, work. And the thought that the behemoth has become benevolent under Obama, and that we somehow would not have infrastructure without it, is laughable.
Wow...nicely done.
“It is certainly true that, in modern times, the government has gotten itself involved in the infrastructure business.” But always with a vig. You send me a dollar and I’ll send you back 75 cents.
And virtually no one in MSM is challenging him on the concept of risk. It’s because he’s never been exposed to the concept. He has never had to lie awake nights wondering if the decision he’ll make the next day will lead to success or failure. He’s had a “safety net” since infancy.
You nailed it, he’s had a safety net for life.
Good article, jaz. I didn’t know that about the Golden Gate bridge.....fascinating.
The King of Spain (and also of North America) didn't begin dividing the place up until AFTER the promulgation of The Treaty of London (1604) ~ and that's the 17thy century.
I'm just guessing the intro piece was written by someone who had the French and English in mind! They, alas, are NEWBIES!
Oh so true. Yes, our system of roads, bridges, Internet, and other infrastructure have undeniably helped, but they are obviously not the underlying reason. Other countries have all the infrastructure the Community Organizer-in-Chief says are the only reason successful Americans got that way. But, those countries don't have the ingenuity, creativity or economy that defines America.
And, who really built our infrastructure? Certainly NOT the government, with its regulations and bureaucracy! It was the successful individuals and companies who paid taxes to fund those services, and it was the private companies and their employees who did the physical building. Furthermore, the fact is that much more could have been done had the grossly inefficient government not been involved.
The bottom line is that our Chief Socialist thinks successful Americans should be willing to pay more taxes, and unsuccessful free-loaders should demand that they do so. As a somewhat successful American, I don't mind paying taxes and volutarily giving over 10% of my gross income to our church and the needy, but I do object to footing the bill for those our government has allowed to think they are somehow entitled to what I have.
So, my fellow Americans, glory (not gloat) in the fact that we still live in a country where individual effort and success are admired and celebrated by most, despite what the socialists think. But, we must be diligent in our efforts to preserve this and other freedoms that are threatened.
Well said. I’m posting a Sowell editorial on this now, it’ll be up shortly.
And event here, they exist because of the businesses that drive the need for them, not to create those businesses in the first place.
Marvin Powers Blood is my 3rd great grandfather. He was born Jan. 8, 1793 Windsor, Vermont and died October 1859, Benngington, Edwards Co., Illinois. He was a soldier of the War of 1812. He was a Major in the Militia. His son, Sylvester Henry remembered and told of playing with his father’s epaulettes. The family was in New York when they packed up all their belongings onto a boat and floated down the Ohio River to where it met the Wabash. Near the confluence they started a sawmill to provide lumber for the community of Grayville, IL. Please Mr. President explain to me how they didnt earn the benefits of the life they built for themselves and their family. And tell me how it was the government and others that were taking the risks for a better life for themselves and their descendants.
Obama can't explain that to you or anyone else, he merely blows hot air.
Just remember - Obama is NOT the problem. We’ve known what he was from the beginning.
The real problems are the ab-humans that voted for him, and cheered this obscenity, the MSM that covers and advertises for Obama (what is their contribution to his campaign worth? A billion dollars? More?), and the “education” system that created these howling morons.
This is what the ‘Pubbies need to deal with. They need to put on their big-boy pants, ignore the screams and start crushing these things.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.