Yours, Mine, and Mine Too

You've probably already heard about attorney, former Harvard Law professor, former Obama advisor, and current Massachusetts Democrat senatorial candidate, Elizabeth Warren's socialist rant, but just in case you haven't, it went like this:

I hear all this, you know, "Well, this is class warfare," this is whatever." No. 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 at your factory -- and hire someone to protect against this -- because of the work the rest of us did.

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.

How much you want to bet that if either you or I walked into Ms. Warren's home without first being invited and proceeded to help ourselves to the contents of her refrigerator, for example, she'd not be quite so, uh, sociable?  In fact, how much you want to bet she'd call the police?  You know, the same police the rest of us paid for?

So silly and stupid are people like Ms. Warren that it is virtually impossible for them to realize that only in a country as great and generous as our own is the silliness and stupidity that describes them not only survivable, but sometimes rewarded with things like sinecures in government positions or distinguished chairs at Ivy League schools, or even seats in the US Senate.

When we are no longer able to subsidize such idiocy, well, then we'll know for sure we're in big trouble.