We Are Supposed to Be Different!

I've argued with everyone over the years: my customers, my high school buds, my colleagues at work, my many friends, and the occasional wild-eyed partisan with whom there is no argument; and in each of these conversations, some louder than others, there has always been an undercurrent suggesting that somehow the rest of the world's governments treat their populace with more care, somehow more humanely than we do here in the United States. I was always perplexed with this comparison until one day, I saw it all very clearly: we were supposed to be different!

We fought a revolutionary war to make sure that we did not take on the burdensome taxes found in the European model of government. We fought and died to make sure that we had the right to make boatloads of money in this country and secured this right in the blood of our countrymen to retain most of those dollars for ourselves and our posterity. We are supposed to be different! We are supposed to be able to keep our money! If you want to be taken care of, you can go anywhere in the world, as my friends and foes alike clearly indicate, where you can get your health care from the government and you can retire at age 62!

But we are different. We are the only country on earth where it IS different. As Ronald Reagan said, "If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth." And, according to those who would argue that most other governments offer health care, this is most certainly true. And in accepting this level of government care, these citizens have given up their right to keep the money they earn; sometimes up to 75% of their wealth! And in return? In return, they get government run health care, retirement, and all the inefficiencies associated with government run programs.

Sure, we want Social Security, a safety net, unemployment insurance, food stamps, etc.; we don't want to see people living in the streets. And I believe that we can provide that safety net, but at levels that are reasonable (a topic for another Blog). Social Security, after all, was meant to be an insurance program for people who didn't have wealth when they met their retirement age. No longer is it marketed in that way; now, it is the sole retirement account of so many who will depend on it when they hit the age of 65.

This age, of course, should be at least 72, and you can wait until then to take your money (it will be more money if you do), but we've re-branded Social Security as a retirement account while impeding its growth by attaching the Social Security fund to treasury bills. So, the choice is clear to those who are paying attention: we can give up our freedoms, let the government take over, or we can be different! We can be the country where people come from all over the world because we innovate, create, and produce due to the incentive we have built into our Constitution that says we can keep what we've earned; I say: let's be different!