Your Mom’s A Blog

I’m sure that some people are still unconvinced.  There are people saying that anyone can improve their station in life with hard work or by getting an education.  If that is the case I pose the following question.  What is your station in life?  Do you go to work on average between 60-80 a week like most Americans did from 1865-1915 without ever taking a vacation?  Did you get an education?  Did that education include a public or private high school?  How would you get an education without a public education system?  How would you get an education at a private school if you could barely afford to eat?  Is it a coincidence that as soon the free market began being legislated to the benefit of the workers there was a huge increase in the number of middle class citizens?  What is indicated by the fact that after legislating the free market to the benefit of the workers the economy not only didn’t collapse, it began a fairly rapid expansion?

So what am I trying to say with all of this?

1. If you have a good middle class life, you’ve been helped by the government in ways you may not know.
2. The free market is both good and bad.  When it is bad, it can be really bad.
3. If you aren’t wealthy (and I don’t mean upper-middle class I mean upper class) the upper classes are not necessarily your friends.  Moreover the likelihood that they achieved their success in life without a good deal of help somewhere along the line is slim (it does happen, but not often.)
4. Poor does not necessarily equate to lazy.  I have known some very hard working poor people and I have known some very lazy middle class and rich people.  In fact, think of the top 5 laziest people you know and see if at least one or two of them doesn’t seem to be leading some sort of middle class existence.
5. The American Dream/Ideal that hard work and ingenuity will get you anything you want in life is just that, a dream.  The system is based on capital and it supports those with capital.  Usually no one can amass enough cash to really achieve the American Dream in a single generation.
6. If you think socialism is evil, hang out with the Swedes for a while, 50% socialism + 50% free market = 100% awesome.