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Heartland Patriot wrote:

talltex wrote:"74novaman

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me —because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

What they don't want to admit is that very often success occurs because a particular individual actually IS SMARTER than most and/or DOES WORK HARDER than most. It's "the politics of envy" that seeks to make everyone equal by refusing to recognize individual effort and achievment and its spreading throughout the world as evidenced by rioting in Europe demanding that the governments provide an ever higher level of support for the large percentage of the population that doesn't work or produce anything, and the "occupy" movement expessing the idea that because someone else has something they don't they are entitled to it . It really does sound like some of the governmental philosophy espoused in Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead..."from each according to his ability for each according to his need"

That is not something espoused by Ayn Rand...that quote of yours is the central tenet of Marxism.

You misunderstood what I wrote...that statement was referring to THE GOVERNMENTAL POLICY Ayn Rand was arguing against in her novels...the exact opposite of her philosophy of Objectivism.

"74novaman

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me —because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

What they don't want to admit is that very often success occurs because a particular individual actually IS SMARTER than most and/or DOES WORK HARDER than most. It's "the politics of envy" that seeks to make everyone equal by refusing to recognize individual effort and achievment and its spreading throughout the world as evidenced by rioting in Europe demanding that the governments provide an ever higher level of support for the large percentage of the population that doesn't work or produce anything, and the "occupy" movement expessing the idea that because someone else has something they don't they are entitled to it . It really does sound like some of the governmental philosophy espoused in Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead..."from each according to his ability for each according to his need"

What he SHOULD have said is that "HE never did or built anything on his own without the government paying for it"! HOW can anyone who has never even had a job in the real world...never risked a dollar of his own money...nothing but government funded academic grants, government funded "community activist" salaried positions, and political appointments and positions, have the gall to lecture and pontificate to those who have. Most small business owners started out with a long struggle...risked all their own money and worked 60+ hour weeks at their businesses, plus hours more at home at night and on weekends trying to keep up with all the paperwork and government required forms, payroll taxes, employee insurance forms, and so on, with absolutely no government assistance and no guarantee of success. The fact is most small businesses don't succeed and the ones that survive and prosper do so because of the time and effort and abilities of the owners...IN SPITE of the government's attempts to tax and regulate them to death.