Striving for More

There are levels to this thing called life. Structures and strictures determine what people think, how they act, and what they wish to do with what reality presents them. In America, the freest, most noblest country in human history, we possess the rights and the luxuries and privileges that allow us to break down into classes what people have and don’t have. Or better put, what people produce and don’t produce and then consume. The lowest rungs of the ladder, the poor, are still far richer than billions of other people the world over. People with median household incomes of twenty thousand dollars or less may have running water, toilets, electricity, functioning refrigerators, washers and dryers, and even smartphones among the ability, of course, to rise from their a destitute position. Few places on Earth allow for such meager beginnings to flourish into greater wealth.

That wealth may be found at a Walmart. While a convict makes license plates for eight cents an hour, an associate at the Supercenter may make up to eight to eleven dollars in that same time frame. And this is before the pressure from shrieking socialists who demand to goad Walmart to raise its prices on labor to fifteen dollars an hour arises. The real beauty of it all is that that associate may start off scanning items and stocking shelves. She may advance to the cash register. Then, she might consider being the supervisor, all while gaining responsibility and more pay and benefits along the way. But what is sad is that this kind of work is frowned upon by most of the populace. There are factions of the United States who would rather sell narcotics than to acquire legitimate, gainful employment at a Walmart, Amazon, or any other giant corporation. While the production, distribution and the sale of all drugs ought to be legal, it is not all that moral. All of the glittering jewelry that rap artists, who push narcotic-laden lyrics, wear entices and excites. In their lyrics they boast about their figures (which are minuscule to actual multi-billionaires) they enjoy separating from lower classes. Really, they’re just altruists and mystics who give large sums of money to “underprivileged” and hand out Turkeys on holidays to signal that they’re actually “virtuous” despite their lyricism. But when they end up making those eight cents an hour after being arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced for drugs and gun possession among other crimes, they’ll crave those humble but ultimately honorable deposits from Walmart.

The rich have been targeted, maligned, and hated. More taxes, more pressures, more entanglements should go to the rich, statists holler. The belief is that the uber-rich must’ve stolen their money, “unfairly” inherited it, or caused some other crime that lies behind great fortunes. Wealthy people, for the most part, are the most productive, honest, and benevolent individuals in the wealthiest land, America. As hooligans chant “eat the rich” they forget what produced the rich for them to be digested. They overlook the reality that men and women with extraordinary amounts of money have generated fortunes, not seized them. In olden times, kings and queens would hold slaves, rape and pillage villages, steal from other kingdoms, and go to war to boost their spoils. Now, in a civilized place like the United States, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett can enjoy their immense assets because they put in the work to achieve them.

“The middle class is [a nation’s] future,” Ayn Rand once wrote. This is the peculiar class that has the ability to enjoy amenities and pleasurable items that the poor seek to obtain. It fuels the upper classes. Yet, it is the middle class that is for the prosperity and the greatness that it has achieved. Individuals in this class don't knock or mock themselves for their attainments. For being somewhat wealthy and able to make savings, people have been able to ascend from modest stations and grasp the good and plenty that this country has to offer. The middle class is the future because it permits individuals to live in comfort while always striving for more.