IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
# 262 “The Ice Cream Society”
January 30, 2019
The title may seem an odd as you read it, but after finishing this column you will see the parallel that I draw.
Those of us who took that first job before our teen years know the value and pride that comes with hard work. In fact, if we go back two generations, it wasn’t at all unusual to see very young boys working full time. More often than not good parental role models and an eighth grade education prepared them to face life head on.
Points taken. Now let’s take a look at our youth today. To begin with, there are exceptions to this assessment, but the overall picture of the age group between 14 and 30 is enough to scare the wrap off a Sumo wrestler.
Reporters doing “on the street” questioning come face to face with young people who disrespect the older generation, who reject the tenet that work and savings achieve financial stability, and who openly admit a dangerous sense of entitlement for which many parents should be called to account.
There is worth in work. There is worth in working toward a goal. There is what our generation knows as patience. I fear that many of the younger generation will never experience the joy of saving for something. Often, the gain is less exciting than the quest. Sadly, these youngsters are more apt to simply buy on credit. Granted, a mortgage is not a frivolous purchase, but a caveat to that is “Do not buy something you cannot afford.”
A nest egg is not just for the birds. Emergencies happen. Having at least a month’s salary is critical for a household. Utilities, landlords and banks do not accept promises or excuses for payment.
A first job may be a step into a lifetime career or it may be a learning experience when another line of work beckons. To be sure, dependability and trustworthiness are the basic keys to success; but they are only building blocks to a worker’s ability and background. Initiative is icing on the cake.
Consider these quotes on work:
“There is no substitute for hard work.”
Thomas A. Edison
“I do not know anyone who has gotten to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but it will get you pretty near.”
Margaret Thatcher
“When I was a young man I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. I didn’t want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work.”
George Bernard Shaw
“If I am anything, which I highly doubt, I have made myself so by hard work.”
Isaac Newton
“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”
Colin Powell
“No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.”
Abraham Lincoln
(The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, “Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin” (September 30, 1859), p. 479.)
“If at any time all labour should cease, and all existing provisions be equally divided among the people, at the end of a single year there could scarcely be one human being left alive—all would have perished by want of subsistence.”
Abraham Lincoln
(His is a clear condemnation of socialism made in the 1800s!)
(The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, “Fragments of a Tariff Discussion” (December 1, 1847), p. 415.)
About twenty years ago I wrote a column on the impact of teaching economics to children in kindergarten. It holds even more today. Penny banks and basic rules of handling money cannot be delayed. Once learned, the tenets of saving and budgeting will be lifelong gifts — not wrapped with ribbons, but even more important.
You’ve probably been privy to situation similar to this. A parent is at the checkout and a child asks to buy something. The parent explains that the family cannot afford it. The child quips either, “You have your credit card,” or “There are still checks in the checkbook.” Children need to understand that family budgets are necessary and how to use money.
This surging phenomenon of wanting at the outset “everything Mom and Dad had after forty years” is downright frustrating for older folks. Yet, even more than that, the practice portends lots of problems. Living beyond one’s means is tenuous at best, perilous if unexpected hurdles surface — as they can.
Not only do they expect everything immediately, but they also buy into the greatest lie perpetrated on the American people: Socialism is good. No. It is not. One conversation with a Venezuelan might make an impact, but I doubt if that impact would be sufficient enough to dissuade them from the belief that capitalism is the enemy. Educators have engrained in the youngsters and have done it for decades. Textbooks do not teach that socialist countries die a slow and painful death.
Media and entertainment do little to extol the businessman. One reason is businesses that have become behemoths make it virtually impossible for small businesses to compete and survive. America was built on the foundation of small business. We are seeing it disappear. I’ve never understood why the government ignores anti-trust laws — laws passed to protect small business against monopolies.
With today’s technologies, these laws are needed more than ever. Yet, to the chagrin of many an American, they remain on the sidelines. I do not know enough about the donor base of the political parties to judge if the neglect to implement anti-trust laws equates to “You get what you pay for.” (Please forgive ending the sentence with a preposition. My fourth-grade teacher Hazel Ford would cringe!)
If that’s true, we are in far more trouble than I imagine. Unfortunately, money does talk. Even sadder, big money shouts. My grandparents’ generation often commented, “Money is the root of all evil.” In many cases, it is.
Getting back to ice cream…. Judging anything requires assessment.
If we compare the average 18-20-year-old of the 1940s and 1950s to the same age bracket today, the differences are glaring. I’m taking out of the comparison the driven, responsible, acceptant individuals. I am left with the young person who accepts the mantra of “political correctness” and the “safe zone” mentality widely preached by the liberal left.
Just how would they respond to a real threat? Not the unkind word or inarticulate phrase, but a real threat? Wow! That’s quite the question. I agree that some speech can really be divisive, but when in the history of the world has there not been such speech?
In the wake of Pearl Harbor 17-year-old-boys lied about their age and enlisted in the armed services. A similar situation happened after 9/11. Yet, since that time the mindset of many young people has dipped again into that anti-government, anti-United States mentality. And work should bring instant money. Work often equates to sitting behind a computer monitor. Too many of this age group look down on people who work with their hands as inferiors. This “uppity” attitude is endemic.
If you combine the antagonist view with the lack of patriotism, you have the recipe for disaster.
Back to Lincoln for a moment…. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Concentrate on media that moves in lockstep with the left. Don’t assume that the liberal establishment and academia do not know what they are doing. They know. They have a goal. It is to divide and conquer. They control much of the news. What’s more, they are better than everyone else. At least they believe they are. The question is how did thinking adults allow this to creep in without opposition? I fear that entertainment has become too much of the life stream than civic responsibility.
Well, I refuse to throw in the towel. I do not agree to the comment that “what is done is done.” We few that see the danger may be the ants versus the rubber tree plants, but we need to start somewhere. We need to press our schools to teach the merits of capitalism and we need to begin early! We need to extol the value of hard work. We need to internalize within our students the need to excel and to choose a career that parallels and dovetails both ability and interest. Iron only becomes steel when heat and pressure hardens it. Early training can steel us to become strong people. Paired with faith, discipline and education are key.
Don’t sit in the kitchen or family room and complain to family or friends. Be an advocate for a better America. Go forth and press for personal responsibility in schools. With so many fractured families, schools need to fill the void. Morality is not a weakness. It is the greatest strength. Encourage your local school board and your state government for more civics, more accurate history, and more economics. Without it, America faces a bleak future. It faces a day when the socialists hold sway over voters. It faces a day when it mirrors Venezuela twenty years ago. Don’t assume it cannot happen. It can — if we allow it.
Do not let that happen. It will be a hard fight, given the fact that all the media outlets save a precious few push forward to praise those who run for election and promise “free stuff.” Nothing is ever free. Someone pays for it.
In short, we need to toughen these youngsters, spiritually as well as intellectually. Categorically, ice cream is either hard dip or soft serve. If applied to people, which would best defend and uphold this nation? I think you know the answer.
Think about it.