To the editor:
Watching the Democrat debates, you have to keep asking one question: Why do they loathe successful individuals as they do?
If you are the head of a successful company, they hate you. If you are a successful entrepreneur, they hate you even worse. Either you cheated to get there, got it at someone else’s expense or, my personal favorite, “you didn’t build it, they did.” How do they justify such clap-trap?
Perhaps there is a more logical explanation for success or failure. Aside from those legitimately handicapped, have you ever known anyone, public or private, whose individual life trajectory wasn’t a direct reflection of their own personal decisions? Sure, you can cite families like the Kennedy’s. But in the grand scheme, theirs are small numbers. So again, when you look around at the people within your life circle, are they not a direct reflection of the personal decisions they’ve made?
Look for instance at those whining about the “unfairness” of high student debt. Who chose their school? They did. Who chose their subject(s) of interest? They did. Who signed their commitment sheet? They did. Did they not first ask the cost? Did they not ask themselves if their chosen field had promise enough to generate a return on the investment? Did they consider less costly options? If the answers are all no, then we as a society owe them nothing.
Is it not the same with life in general? CEO’s aren’t plucked from homeless tents. They studied, worked long hours, paid their dues and moved up from lesser positions. Are most entrepreneurs not born from the ground up? Most sacrifice everything and start from nothing beyond an idea and a resolve that failure is not an option.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a highly successful musician or the creator of a billion dollar app; it takes hours of thought, practice, work and dedication to be good at anything. Very few people have success delivered to them on a platter and no one achieves millionaire status through the government except our insanely corrupt politicians.
Show us an able-bodied failure and nine times out of 10, it will be a person crippled by a lifelong series of self-inflicted wounds. Whether it be quitting school, having children too early or becoming addicted, these are all at individual choices that had consequences. Consequences for bad life choices are not society’s fault.
Mike Pflum
Martinsville
