Elementary Dear Obama
by Tibor R. Machan
Ok, so none of us creates or produces anything ex nihilo. What, if anything, follows from this? Our teeth weren’t made by us, nor our hair or nose or eyes. Yet we often benefit because of these. Our beautiful eyes may impress someone and may even land us a movie contract. We may be very tall and do well at basketball in consequence. A few of us may have talents others would kill for!
Bottom line is that having advantages over other folks entitles no one to step in and become equalizers, even if they are the president of the United States of America. To think otherwise is a non-sequitur: Doesn’t follow and rests not on logic or reason but on the myth of the imperative of egalitarianism. Even before Mr Obama announced that we do not deserve our advantages, Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts promoted the mistake that not having made all of our advantages entitles others to butt in and take from us what we didn’t earn. Warren was dead wrong just as Obama is.
It would be something else if one’s advantages came from having stole them from another--say a native American. But that isn’t the issue. Native Americans owned a great deal that they didn’t create or produce. Yet when it was stolen from them, it was wrong and they were justified condemning it as theft as would we be if someone stole our teeth or identity. Ok, this stuff is elementary so why would Obama & Co. make believe they are unaware of it? Because they appear to be grabbing for power again, to deprive people of their property and thus their chance of making significant choices in their lives. That's the basic issue of property rights. Who gets to choose. Who is in charge. Property rights spell out who. By denying that you and I own the goods we have, never mind how we came by it so long as we didn't steal it, they are attempting to rob us of the power of choice and using what they have taken for purposes not out own! And that is morally and should be legally wrong.
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Tibor R. Machan holds the R. C. Hoiles Chair in Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at the Argyros School of Chapman University. http://tibormachan.rationalreview.com/[[/A> & http://szatyor2693.wordpress.com/[[/A>; [Notice: It's OK to print this email free of any "eco-guilt." Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees. Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs for millions. Working forests are good for the environment and provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. Thanks to improved forest management, there are more trees in America today, for example, than a 100 years ago.]
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