OPINION

Don't Blame the Successful

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Thursday's speech from President Obama had a line that should resonate with all Americans: "Problems can be solved, challenges can be met."

I agree one hundred percent and ask why beat up the solvers and challenge-beaters?

All week long I had to listen to people imply that those who have made the nation better, richer, smarter and more competitive are somehow the problem. We get rewarded for solving problems and meeting challenges in the current American structure. To tinker with it in pursuit of a more perfect union is wise but to crush it in pursuit of a fairer nation where prosperity is distributed by the government, and not by merit but as a birthright, would destroy this nation. This is a perplexing time, frustration has opened up a mindset that the less skin in the game the more virtue a person has, and those that save or create businesses are villains.

This mindset has been around a long time. In fact, I wrote in the September newsletter about the story of King Gillette and The Human Drift. Hugely successful, Gillette was a socialist thinker but also wanted fame and fortune, and got the latter but always pined for the former. His story and its ironies are amazing.

For a free copy send me an email with your day time phone number Charles.payne@wstreet.com.

The government doesn't spend money on tax breaks, and certainly not trillions of dollars. The assumption is wrong that all money earned naturally belongs to the government and therefore whatever we get to keep comes out of Washington's purse and not the sweat of our brow drives policy and got a big applause last night. But, how much energy and effort will be spent trying to punish a small business owner with income of $400,000 rather than making it possible for more people to become small business owners? When I heard "citizenship" it rang in my ear like "comradeship," which once promised shared prosperity but only brought shared misery.

Where Are the Jobs?

I get the idea the private sector is doing alright as a theory based on the stock market, but in reality our domestic economy is still in first gear. 368,000 people dropped out the jobs market last month and that may explain President Obama's somber mood and longer timetable for curing our economic ills.