I guess our new President didn't read that one!

Except for the BILLIONS of dollar government BAILOUTS made to banks and big business. The above statement don't include them. Legislation is not in their favor either.

I'm not in favor of governments owning business because then they make laws to protect businesses (their investments) not protect the people who elect them.

Egregious conflict in interest and dereliction of their fiduciary responsibilities.

Great post Em!!!!!!!

Excellent post. "You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it" What a profound statement.

rcbbuckeye, that's actually not always true. Have you have bought a stock and it split? :-)   

Emily -

I am sure you are referring to our current administration and the attempts to heal our economy. Nobody is suggesting we take from the rich and give to the poor. About 2 to 3% of the people will ever see an increase in their taxes.

I have never once heard our new president even suggest that people stay home and take welfare. What I do hear is how we need to improve our education system so our country can stay competitive. What I do hear is a man telling school age children to promise they'll stay in school and get a higher education to achieve more. What I do hear is how we need to invest in technology, alternative energy and industry so we can create more jobs.

A plan to rebuild and restrengthen our country by helping people get jobs isn't dividing wealth. When people get back on their feet, then even the wealthy benefit. A store owner cannot stay in business if he doesn't have customers. We need consumer spending to stay economically strong.

To me, helping struggling people keep their houses or putting food on tables of families who, through no fault of their own, are hungry or homeless, is showing compassion, not enabling laziness & sloth. Whatever happened to all the Bible thumpers on the right? Do they only pick & choose the passages that suit them? The apostles speak of helping your neighbor and being charitable in troubled times. Yet when people were drowning & starving to death in New Orleans, others stood at a bridge with guns, forbidding them to cross. I wonder what they said in church that Sunday?

By the way, if you are currently getting Social Security, don't kid yourself into thinking you paid for it. Should seniors pay back what they didn't put into it because they are living longer than anticipated? Or maybe we should get rid of Medicare, since the small contributions made by those who are now receiving benefits don't even begin to cover its exorbitant cost. So to say the government needs to take from some to give to others is very true. I've got to pay for my neighbor's 5 kids to go to school through my property taxes, even though I don't have any children of my own. Why does someone with dependents have many more tax deductions or even get a credit from my taxes?

Socialism is nothing new. It's just that it's become the latest fear word since "Muslim" and "Terrorist" didn't seem to work on Nov 4.

Absolutely great post "Em" , Socializm is alive and well in Washington...!

"Socialism works until they run out of other peoples money" Margaret Thatcher.

I voted Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I
want. I've decided to marry my horse.

I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a
gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of
gas at 15% isn't.

I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job
of spending the money I earn than I would.

I voted Democrat because freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody is
offended by it.

I voted Democrat because when we pull out of Iraq I trust that the bad
guys will stop what they're doing because they now think we're good
people.

I voted Democrat because I'm way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I
know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers
and thieves.

I voted Democrat because I believe that people who can't tell us if it
will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away
in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.

I voted Democrat because I'm not concerned about the slaughter of
millions of babies so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.

I voted Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed
to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the
rest away to the government for redistribution as THEY see fit.

I voted Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the
Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never
get their agendas past the voters.

I voted Democrat because my head is so firmly planted up my rear that
it's unlikely that I'll ever have another point of view.

"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own."
AMEN

The conservatives really do need to stop the "resistance campaign" It's getting old. It's like "you won but we will do everything in our power collectively to jack it up" It's a unified front. We will never accept it and throw every monkey wrench we have at you to make sure you fail. Even if we have to stoop to the antics of Rush Limbaugh and people like Rick Santilli. It is truly sad and is not funny any more.

Like the Democrats did for the past eight years. What really is getting old is the demonization of private citizens by the POTUS and his butt boyz, since they don't have GW to kick around anymore they pick private cictzens to draw attention away from the problems they are perpetuating.

I am going to work at a diabetes benefit fund raiser tonight what are you Democrats doing tonight for your fellow citizens?

GREED.....my dear an excessive desire to acquire of possess wealth or power beyond what one needs or deserves. BANK, INVESTORS ETC. I don't understand your quote, he or she must be a person of greed. Where are the jobs? Wealth multiplied or divided by 0 is what?

At least when the democrats did the Bush whine (with good reason - failure was really happening, not what could happen) the whole world whined with them and the Republicans came aboard and helped the Democrats vote the other Republicans out of the House and Senate and the White House. Yes, your own party turned on you. Ya'll messed over them too. They did something about it. It was time to go.

You guys (conservatives) are a minority whose leader is the likes of Rush Limbaugh. You can't do nothing but whine at this point and throw monkey wrenches. So I'm just taking it for what it's worth. An annoying "resistance campaign" of losers.

@ lottery101...very profound and apropos to our current situation..."Wealth multiplied or divided by 0 is what?"

That pretty much sums it up in a nutshell. In this equation the 0 represents the U.S. dollar.

@Emily,

That was a wonderful post, thank you for shedding the light of reason!!

Reading through the comments, it is easy to see that those who are going to agree with Obama no matter what he represents or does cannot find the words to respond to your original blog entry.

I made this same observation in my blog not too long ago.

So your blog entry is enlightening from two perspectives: directly, through its wise words, and indirectly, through the lack of argument by those who will always automatically support Barack Obama.

It is also interesting that the leftists are using a mantra that all "rich" people are bankers or work on Wall Street. I guess that's the mantra to replace "Bush lied". And to accompany "yes we can". (Although judging from the 20% drop in the economy since Obama took over, "no we can't".)

Barack Obama considers all families making $250,000 or more "rich". I wonder what percentage of those people are bankers. Probably not very many.

In case the leftists didn't know, a very large percentage of the bankers are Democrats, not conservatives or Republicans. A majority of them voted for Obama. Are they still "evil" and "greedy"?

Getting back to the "rich" thing, are you people under the impression that it is BAD to be rich? If you are happy with your station in life, and have no desire to increase your personal standing, then that's your business. But just know that that attitude is not the "American Dream". It is an attitude that makes one dependent on others for support. Is that what you personally want? Is that what you want other people to have?

My own opinion is that it is the hunger to improve oneself that leads to great things. As soon as you are happy with your station in life, you not only stop your chances of improvement, but you probably don't set a great example for future generations. I show my kids that we succeed through hard work, never letting up, and always striving to improve. I would never teach them that people who succeed should be looked at with scorn as being "greedy". I teach them to learn what made those people successful and copy it.

It's kind of uncomfortable to have to say these things, but there seems to be such a disconnect here that I thought it might help. All this clinging to one person, no matter how illogical it may be, reminds me of "Four legs good, two legs bad" (Animal farm, for those who don't recognize it).

Todd - that is totally your perception and very condescending. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Playing people stupid. Saying the things you want people to believe.

You lie. Never did Obama say that anyone making $250,000 is rich. And a person would have to be pretty stupid to think so. The average person in America makes less than that. You say what you want people to believe. To assume makes as ass out of u and me. Ass u me

Emily, by the way, great post.

Tenaj I don't see Todd's post as "perception" or being "condescending". I see it as a good "philosophy" and "educational" to anyone that is willing to learn how to be "successful" and be "productive".

The USA's longest, costliest war is the war on poverty, $11,000,000,000,000 ($11 trillion) over 50 years! That is the transfer of wealth from the productive to the non productive. I believe during the Clinton presidency along with congress, enacted reform that worked in motivating those that could.
As a society we must help those that can't but we must wean off of handouts those that can, that is why the mantra "Yes we can" is a farce, people believe it means "Yes we can get more money for nothing and screw the MAN" remember T.A.R.P MEANS Taxpayers Again Raped by Politicians!