Elizabeth Warren (elizabethwarren.com)
It’s a Republican favorite. It’s a Tea Party favorite. It was a favorite of Ebenezer Scrooge. It reflects a small, hard, miserly spirit, and it slaps common sense in the face.
“I worked for everything I have, I earned it all, and I don’t owe any part of it to anyone else.”
You’ve heard that one, right? Of course, you have. It’s usually followed by a high sounding plea for the protection of greedy, rich bastards job creators—the old wearisome sob story about how we mustn’t punish people for their successes and accomplishments.
I know. It makes you want to gag. Jab a sharp pencil in your ear. Scream. But remember… the numbskulls who repeat this nonsense don’t know any better. They probably can’t be taught any better, still we’re obliged to try.
Elizabeth Warren, our favorite new senatorial candidate (she’s running in Massachusetts for a U.S. Senate seat, trying to unseat the Tea Party incumbent) had a few words to say about this “It’s mine and I’m entitled to keep it all” idea. We thought she explained things pretty well.
Here’s what she said: (You can hear her entire remarks about deficit reduction and the debt the rich owe the rest of us in the video to the right of this article.)
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there—good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything in your factory….
Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea—God bless! Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
Amen.
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Pay it forward…that’s the bit that so many have forgotten. Well said, Prentice and thanks for blogging again!
Elizabeth Warren is the best democratic candidate in the country. Whether or not the Democrats keeps the White House in the next election, she should be the party’s presidential candidate in 2016. If she challenged President Obama in a primary I would vote for her in this election.