3. The Uncomfortable Comforting Truth

There is a fundamental truth I would ask you to consider.  To me, it is essential.  If I did not believe this, I could not be conservative.  Conversely, if you do believe it, then I argue it is inevitable to conclude that not only is a great deal of our current public policy wrong, it is destined to fail, and it is why we are going broke.  So you tell me, am I right or am I wrong.  Should I switch sides and line up behind Mr. Obama?

This is the core truth I would want my child to embrace.  It is what I would teach my students.  It is what I would share with someone down on their luck, confronting personal failure.  It is what I would tell someone from the inner city facing economic and social obstacles to their success.  It is what I would tell someone who had been victimized by the greed, callousness, racism or sexism of others.

I believe that I am stunningly fortunate through an accident of birth to be living in the United States in the early years of the 21st century.  I believe I am living in a society that has achieved something rare and magnificent.  It is a society in which barring misfortune or infirmity anyone can reasonably succeed and enjoy an historically unprecedented standard of living.  That is, one need not make heroic choices, know the right people, or be a winner of life's lottery; one need only make sound moral decisions.  Consider this quote from Ron Haskins in his article in National Review, May 3, 2010:

"The fact that personal responsibility plays a major role in mobility and economic well-being can be easily demonstrated.  The three basic rules of success in America are that young people should finish their educations (at least high school), get jobs, and get married before having children.  Computations based on Census data that my Brookings Institution colleague Isabel Sawhill performed for our recent book, Creating an Opportunity Society, shows that kids who follow these rules have a 74 percent chance of winding up in the middle class (defined as income of $50,000 or more) and a mere 2 percent chance of winding up in poverty ($17,200 for a family of three in 2008).  By contrast, young people who violate all three of these rules have only a 7 percent chance of winding up in the middle class and a 76 percent chance of winding up in poverty."

Stunning.

The overwhelming fact is that we are incredibly lucky to be living in a society wherein if you study hard, work hard, treat people fairly, save money, marry intelligently, and have a service orientation, you will most likely succeed.  In medieval Europe, most people could not read, lived hungry, cold lives, shared the same physical dwelling with their animals if they were lucky to have any, and died young. Today, the biggest barriers to success are a skills deficit and stupid choices.

It follows that the biggest single contribution we can make to helping people succeed is to provide them with the skills they need to access the abundant opportunity all around them.  I would teach anyone struggling to find success and happiness to get up every day and ask a single question:  How can I provide value for someone today?  It has nothing to do with the 1%, the oil companies, bankers or Wall Street fat cats.  People do not need the playing field leveled, they do not need to rely on a philosopher king to take care of them, and they certainly do not need America to be fundamentally transformed, thank you.  They simply need to make better choices that unlock their inner, God-given potential.

Will there always been a tragic tenth, the physically and mentally wounded, the unfortunate souls?  Of course.  And we should take care of them humanely and with love.  But the tragic tenth will not drive a wealthy nation into bankruptcy.  It is when a significant percentage of the population loses the capacity for self-reliance that you eventually run out of other people's money.  This is a problem of character and all the class warfare in the world won't solve it.  It will, however, get you one hell of a deficit.