When Everybody Wins, Everybody Loses

When a game is played, there are winners and there are losers. It’s a fact of life. But we have become a society that wants everyone to win. You can even see it in how we rear our children these days, making sure that all the kids who play soccer get a trophy – everyone from the kids who outscored the other team massively to the kids who sat the bench the entire time. We even see it where multiple Valedictorians (5 or more is not uncommon) are named in the graduating classes of high schools. It’s not reality to fabricate such a mindset – that you will always win and that someone will be there to be sure that you do, no matter what. What happened to rewarding the real winners? Where’s the incentive to excel in such a world? What happened to letting those who excelled come out on top? Losers aren’t losers if they strive and improve themselves – or is improvement outdated too? The more we give to “losers” the less we can reward the winners with, so the winners do lose. 

It scares me the way people feel entitled to success. The very word “entitled” makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up as our society continues to rush headlong into a more socialistic state. Our government is becoming more and more involved in our lives and we now expect safety nets. A safety net is fine (to a degree) but I’d far prefer seeing a church or some charitable organizations filling some of the gaps our “social welfare” programs are currently filling instead. Yet, there’s a huge difference between quenching the thirst of a hungry man to help him get on his feet again versus giving him a bottle of Dom Perignon.

The truth is, our government doesn’t owe anyone the right to success. We have only been guaranteed to have the right to pursue happiness. Nowhere have we ever guaranteed success for every business or any person or group of people – or industry. If you fail, you fail and to the winners go the spoils. If anyone bails you out, it should be your competitors who were apparently doing something better than you. It cannot be the government – that’s not capitalism! It simply isn’t fair to the companies that are truly doing the right things. Now they must compete with not only their rightful opposition, but also the government and its endlessly deep pockets.

Why does it scare me? Simply because the outrage is so minimal! Where is the real outrage? Why aren’t people screaming and hyperventilating about the government getting into their business? Jefferson and Adams would have put aside their differences, taken up arms and united in defiant outrage to combat such abuse and graft. What right have we to sit in utter complacency and do nothing? Why aren’t people mad as hell? It’s baffling! This could be a moment that Democrats and Republicans unite and clean house together.

I grew up in an America where work was its own reward – where true effort yielded the necessities of life and often times, very much more. Now we all want something for nothing – we’re becoming a socialist welfare state where not only the poor and distressed are protected, but the corporate elite as well. It’s clearly wrong on all the most basic and fundamental levels. So wrong, much of it should actually be criminal by my estimation.

So, who’s next? Already, we are seeing states come forward and tell the federal government they need a loan (to be bailed out) and they’re citing this bailout as the precedence for it. Will we be bailing out industry after industry, finally even taking on the last frontier (healthcare) as the final warning sign when it will already be too late? And just how close are we to that one already? Why can’t we see how we’re becoming a socialist state and why do we think this is the panacea? It smacks of ‘wrong’ to me no matter how I look at it. It’s even more wrong that the few of us who do see it are not being heard.?

The warning bells are ringing! The democratic republic many of us grew up to love and cherish (and fought for) has found a new enemy and it is us! We need to get our heads on straight and do what is right.

In a year of Presidential politics, the issues are clouded over by ‘spin and the focus is on the two candidates. The fact of that matter is that neither of them will be able to be our nation’s “savior” in this instance. With the legislative arm currently bent towards socialism and “pork” for their constituents, it becomes apparent they are attempting to “buy” their seats back rather than serve the country. Such graft will doom us. What is the cost to the nation? Few seem to care so long as their state gets a slice of the pork!

We really need to “change” or somehow regulate congress – in a big way. Regardless of political affiliation, these “Representatives” are bleeding our country of its stature in the world – our children hang in the balance. Where we were once the preeminent world leader, we now borrow from our enemies to pay off debts we incurred years ago. Where we were once a major player in manufacturing quality goods, now we make all our money by speculating on oil futures? Everything is made somewhere else. Because of such speculation, “Made in America” is a thing of the past. We have created a whirlpool of debt and yet we still keep borrowing more. Where will this $700 billion be conjured from? What about the next time? When does it end? Do we just print more money and continue to watch that impact inflation?

I find it hard to believe that either Presidential candidate can make much difference. In fact, if our nation’s success or failure hinges on one or the other being elected, we are certainly doomed! It’s time for a revolution and the ballot box is the place for that to happen!  I am a strong advocate of term limits. Whether by the people, or by law! If they won’t limit themselves, Vote them out! Show them the outrage that’s missing. Don’t re-elect a soul, regardless of his or her party – and especially regardless of what he or she might have brought back to your state! That should be a red flag, for certain.

Professional politicians don’t know anything about “leadership” but they do, however, know a lot about misleading. It’s time we show them the door and get some people in office who will be committed to the big picture – to a Capitalist America – rather than their own re-elections. We need people who are committed to making the hard decisions – not politically correct or politically biased decisions. Our founding fathers would roll in their graves if they knew the mess we have gotten ourselves into. Sheer apathy which we are all responsible for – all of us. I, for one, am tired of paying for people and businesses who failed to plan. They don’t deserve a trophy! It’s time for those people to start living within their means like those of us in the heart of America do. If their means changes, they have to make adjustments just like the poor and middle class have done for decades!

As we start down this long road of recovery, we need responsible leadership – leaders with conscience, leaders with backbone leaders who are willing to make the tough decisions which will be necessary to get us back on track to be the most powerful nation in the world in every sense of the word.

Rewarding bad behavior and poor performance in our youth, teaches them to expect nothing of themselves. It’s time to recognize (or remember) the things made this country great – it has a lot to do with naturally overcoming adversity; not from being down and lifted up by big brother every time we fall! Every time a CEO drives his company into bankruptcy and walks away from the crash after landing under his golden parachute, literally with millions in his pocket, there should be outrage. That kind of “loser” laughing all the way to the bank is revolting to me and should send a tremor through the soul of this country. Every time we bail out a company (or entire industry in this case), we strike a blow at the very foundation of the republic. When we allow these things to continue, we all lose. Until we revolt and change the status quo, we will continue to lose.

A populace that is under-educated (and we’re struggling with education, too – “No Child Left Behind” isn’t making a group of “winners” but grooming mediocrity with more trophies for losers) can be so easily swayed by prevailing sentiment. We are becoming victims of our own success. We were all permitted to live as Kings in our own little kingdom and what better gift to give our descendants than the keys to the castle. The problem is that the model doesn’t work. If one doesn’t have to develop one’s own self-determination because it’s already given to them, there’s no opportunity for growth. Consider the caterpillar – it must struggle as it comes out of its cocoon to become the beautiful butterfly. If you try to help it, you only cripple it. Bankers can tell you stories of families that piss away inheritances and piles of money given to them because the general rule is that you never value what you didn’t have to earn for yourself. We all hate to see things like that happen but at least it’s done of their own volition – and it does happen, a lot. What we have is exactly this type of phenomenon but it has spread to a macro scale. The only saving grace in all of this is that we will have serious challenges in the future because the market cannot and will not be fooled. Then, and probably, only then will we, as a society, wake out of our slumber and realize that others (government) controlling and dictating our future is not what we want.

If we continue to stand by idly while socialism marches insidiously into our lives, and apathy consumes us, America will not long be the place where dreams come true. It will be a place of nightmares. Wake up America!