Attaining Prosperity Without the Government

Attaining Prosperity Without the Government
By Karen Harper
July 17, 2012

I’ve had it! In President Obama’s recent speech, he tells successful business owners that they didn’t do it; they are not responsible for their success. “If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Really? Who made it happen? The government? Is he insinuating that the only way to be successful is to have the government help you out? This has put me over the edge. Let me just say, “The AUDACITY!”

I look around and see business owners that I know personally, who grew up much like I did -- not in wealth, but in very modest, humble homes, with parents who worked hard to make ends meet. The business owners I know worked extremely long, hard, stressful days, six or seven days a week, sometimes for years. They risked everything they had to get started, and their families literally prayed them through it. Please look them in the eye and tell them they didn’t do it.

I am also tired of hearing that you can’t get ahead and be successful without government assistance. My parents and my husband’s parents had nothing when they started out. Both of our fathers joined the Navy soon after high school. When my in-laws married, they put all of their belongings in the trunk of a car. He became an airplane mechanic with the skills he acquired in the military; she had two kids to raise at age 17. When the kids were older, she went to work in a fabric store and decorated cakes on the side. They worked hard, struggled, they saved, and they sacrificed to put their two kids through college.

My father became a mail clerk after his military service. Who, now, wants to be a mail clerk? That’s not a “good enough” job for most. It doesn’t pay well, it has no prestige. My father did it. And he worked hard, probably never called in sick, was loyal and dependable. He worked his way into a sales position and had to leave his wife and two daughters a lot for job-required travel. He did that well and landed an office job with the same company, and he retired from there many years later as a customer service supervisor. My mother went to work full time at the public library when I was in junior high. They, too, worked hard, struggled, saved, tithed, and sacrificed to put me through college.

I worked at McDonald’s, a grocery store, a steakhouse, and eventually as a bank teller to pay for my expenses during high school and college. I got no government assistance, and neither did my husband, nor our parents. When Wade and I started out, we didn’t have much more than our parents did when they began, except college degrees. We did what our parents had taught us. We worked hard, struggled, sacrificed, and saved our money like crazy. I took a job that I felt was below my qualifications. I was a little bit embarrassed about it at the time because it didn’t require the college degree I possessed. But I took it and proved myself. I was promoted before a year was up. And one year after that, I was able to go to work for another company, doing more what I wanted to do, and finally getting paid what I thought I deserved. After two years, I was promoted and making more than I had ever imagined I would. I left it all a couple years later to stay home and raise our kids.

Wade’s career has steadily progressed through the years because of his work ethic and proven track record. We believe all good things come from God, not the government. We are thankful to Him for our talents and abilities. We believe in giving back. We do this by tithing to our local church and, on top of that, giving to missions and to a church building fund so that more people in our community and abroad can be impacted by the Gospel. We also give regularly to City Union Mission and other ministries that help heal the broken by giving them a hand UP and pointing them to Christ. We've also learned that when you help your neighbor, chances are, they'll help you, too. I say all this not to brag, but to defend ourselves from the false accusations that conservatives are stingy, selfish people who don’t care about helping anyone. Again, as I look around, I see most of our friends and relatives giving back as we do.

Even though we are blessed enough to live life comfortably and give back, we will not be able to completely pay for our three kids to get through college. We, like so many other middle-class Americans, make too much for government assistance, yet not enough that we can continue to give AND pay 100% of twelve years of college. We continue to give because it is a core value. Our kids are going to have to work harder than we did to get themselves through school.

I resent the government wanting to take more and more of our money through taxes to help the “less fortunate” and to put other people’s kids through college when we can’t do it for our own. At one time or another, we or our parents or grandparents were all members of the less fortunate. (And the less fortunate today have way more than my parents had when they started out!) When cable television, flat screens, computers, cell phones, and Nike Air Maxes are considered necessities, we know the line between want and need has not been blurred, but erased. Entitlement mentality at its finest.

The question for the day is, “If you are an able-bodied person of sound mind, what will you do to change your destiny?” Will you look to the government to even the playing field? Or will you do things the hard but respectable and guaranteed way to get ahead? Most of us have made it to where we are today because we did it the hard way. We have made it because WE KNOW WHAT IT’S ABOUT.

It’s about taking a job, any job, and working hard, proving yourself valuable, dependable, and efficient. It’s about integrity -- not calling in sick when you’re not; and not stealing from the company, neither time nor material. It’s about staying married and working through problems when you feel like leaving. It’s about staying in school and paying attention in school and doing your homework. It’s about having wisdom and showing restraint, and making wise decisions with your money. It’s about taking advice from your elders. It’s about ordering water in restaurants when you’d rather drink Coke. It’s about doing without cable television. It’s about spending less than you earn and putting money away. It’s about sacrifice and delayed gratification. It’s about driving to Branson for an extended weekend when your neighbors are spending ten days in Tahiti. It’s about not going into debt to drive a fancy, new car. It’s about realizing “get rich quick” usually doesn’t work, but that slow and steady wins the race. It’s about taking responsibility for your own destiny, even when it doesn’t feel good. Just don’t tell me you can’t get there because things aren’t fair so the government needs to help you. The government helping you is what’s not fair.