Have you read Cory Miller's letter to Obama?

I read it, and have a couple of thoughts. 1) I’m glad he was able to succeed, however, for every success story like Cory Miller’s there are thousands of people who worked just as hard, sacrificed just as much and still didn’t succeed. Does that make them less worthy? 2) Class warfare is used by both parties. One side elevates the wealthy, while the other elevates the poor.

I have a huge problem with people who think that charitable giving can only be measured in dollars. I very rarely give money to charity. Very rarely. However, I regularly spend my time volunteering. Yet by Cory’s standard that means I am not charitable.

@augustlan

I agree about the class warfare

Where’s John Galt when you need him?

@august: While I agree with your first statement, I want to ask another question. I don’t disagree that they are worthy, but my question is, are they entitled?

The declaration of Independence states, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

IMO, I see it as we are entitled to the pursuit of happiness but not necessarily happiness itself.

Well, entitled to what? Success? No. Happiness? No. Being able to afford the basic necessities of life? Yes.

And what about the right to fail?

We all get hung up on providing everyone with a level playing field so that all of us in our society have the equal right to success.

You know, that’s well and fine, but that also means that each and every one of us should be entitled to the equal right to fail.

We all just got put on the hook for around $6,000 each to support the failures in the finance/banking world. How you feel about that? Warm and fuzzy?

@august: You raise another question to what are the necessities of life. I can go out in the world with a high school degree and find a job that can afford me to provide myself with food, clothing, and a cheap apartment. I find it hard to believe that those who TRULY try to get ahead and pay for what they need to survive can not do so. I’m sure you can find examples but I would be willing to bet that the majority simply do not strive.

How many of these “open letters” from so-called “real americans” do we have to see before it becomes obvious that these are thinly veiled propaganda efforts?

I’m Rudolph Hess, and I approve this message

I want to know why people are so concerned about taxes when people have lost more money in the stock market and then our government bailed these rich bastards out. My parents are in the tax bracket that Obama is taxing and they have lost 150,000 dollars out of their 401ks. What about that money? This is nothing more than propaganda and it is working on many folks. Hell, half the people I hear talk about taxes being their reason for voting McCain don’t even make enough money to where they don’t get a refund check every year.

sacaver: “And what about the right to fail?”

Having an equal right to success doesn’t mean that everyone will be successful. It’s difficult to be successful at life in general if the basic tools required aren’t available to all who require them.

No, I don’t have a warm fuzzy feeling because we’re bailing out financial institutions that failed and I like it less because their failure was due to their own poor judgement.

@ jvgr – I second that.

August? Am I getting this? We have a right to… what?

We have a right to life (no one is allowed to murder us), liberty (no one is allowed to enslave us… hmm, yet we believe the Constitution didn’t provide for abolition), and the pursuit of happiness. Not happiness, just the opportunity to go for it. Certainly not “being able to afford the necessities of life”.
Some people who don’t have what many of us would CALL the “necessities of life” are
actually very contented. And the reverse.

Am I mis-reading you?

@All: I’m not saying everyone has the right to happiness or success. What I am saying is this: If you have a job, and it’s the best one you can get, and you are working your ass off doing it you ought to be able to afford to live. Not talking about fancy cars and your own home…just the basics like shelter, food, health-care. Anyone in my home-town working a low wage job could not afford that. In my home-town (not the most expensive locale around, by a long shot) the average sales price of a home is $316,740, and that’s after the market fell apart. You cannot rent an apartment for less than $800/month. In my opinion, those people are working just as hard as any CEO. Do I think they deserve the same pay? No. Do I believe we could/should lighten their burden a little bit? Yes. I know…I’m a Socialist.

susanc: Are you nuts. how many people have you met in real life who did not have the NECESSITIES of life and told you they were so very content? The constitution does charge the federal government with providing for the common defense and the general welfare of the citizens.

He sounds bitter. (Like Scrooge McDuck)

He sounds like, thanks to his own choices, his entire life is made up of pivotal points. Points where anyone, including him, was more at the mercy of fate and not his “personal drive, personal ambition, self-discipline, self reliance, and a determination” as his ego filled letter relates. We are supposed to be impressed by this? Granted, the new pump was impressive

So someone makes the same choice as him and puts the same “personal drive, personal ambition, self-discipline, self reliance, and a determination” but the weather goes bad, or a bad customer or equipment failure exceeds his remaining money and he says that makes him better than them?

He is a gloating angry man who created every single situation he put himself in and thinks that because of that it is his right to denounce the ways and means of others. NO one will ever work as hard as he had to or does. No If he had 100’s of employees hired and fired because of the problems he listed then it only speaks to how bad he is as a manager and a businessman.

He can bite me.

The necessities of life are often less than most people assume.