What If...

I posted this a few months ago, but with the pending unveiling of Obama's budget with it's focus on increasing taxes on businesses and the wealthy in an attempt to shore up the huge deficits (in large part created by his huge new spending programs), I decided to post it again. We are closing in on a point from which there may be no return.


Headlines scream of looming deficits and ongoing, seemingly never ending new stimulus and entitlement programs proposed and dreamed up by the Democrats in their quest to nationalize every industry in the USA, and I wonder what the consequences will be. What will the USA look like when my kids are adults? What kind of tax burdens will they shoulder in order to ensure that everyone gets their "fair share", with no regard to their contribution to society? Will they ever know of the opportunities to attain prosperity for which America has been known for 200 years? Or will their efforts be for naught in a country which will eagerly strip them of their earnings should they desire to go above and beyond to educate themselves, work harder, and provide more for their own families?

If indeed the USA of tomorrow looks more like the France or Denmark of today, (minus the beautifully preserved historic cities and towns), then would I, or my children choose to live here? What other options exist for a fruitful existence based on one's personal responsibility and desire to achieve, to reach farther down into the human spirit to create, to strive, to provide a better life for one's family? What if huge numbers of educated people with a strong work ethic got so fed up that they just....left? Went to New Zealand or Tazmania or Kenya or wherever to start a new life? Doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, engineers, computer geeks, scientists, entreprenuers, manufacturers. For a moment, forget the issues related to visas and attaining citizenship and whatnot. Just imagine a mass of the (relatively) richest, most educated, and entreprenuerial people on the planet moving to some other place to start a new life, based on the principles espoused by the America they once knew. The America which rewarded creativity and work ethic and education and risk taking rather than rewarding only abject failure. The kind of America our ancestors left their homelands for in search of opportunity. Would a developing country willingly throw this great human capital away? Perhaps some would welcome their traditional American can-do spirit and allow them to create an existence which would better the lives of all. Without having to own them all.