I Want It All And I Want It Now

I often read how Americans, on average, are falling behind other nations is our understanding of science, mathematics, history, you name it.  We, on average, know less about most everything than our peers on other countries.  And, might I suggest this situation is far worse than most suspect.  Why?  Because that average includes a lot of truly brilliant Americans who do understand, and who translate that understanding into the near miracles we take so much for granted in our everyday lives

Yet, there is one area where I am sure we lead the world.  That is in wanting.  Yes, my friends, we can out want anyone from anywhere.  In fact, we value wanting so much that it is one of the first meaningful things many parents teach their children.  Sound like a stupid thing to say?  Well, how many of you were helping your children compose a letter to Santa – in other words, a “want list” – long before they could read or write for themselves?  Indeed, all most children are capable of, at that stage in life, is to point at things then pitch a fit because they “want” it.  And, we go right along, encouraging that kind of mistaken view of life, playing along with the notion that some magical being might just produce the things they want, just because they want them.  Well – it is true that the myth of behaving and eating yucky food may have been thrown in to the bargain but none of the children really take that part seriously.  But they darn sure are serious about the magic man with flying beasts who can get a fat body down a narrow chimney, carrying a bag of stuff they want.

No doubt, most of you have decided I am the Grinch, out to steal Christmas.  Not at all.  In fact, there is actually nothing at all wrong with wanting.  Instead, there is very much right about it – and its ability to motivate – that is totally good.  But only so long as, while being taught to want, we are also taught how wants are properly satisfied.

I propose that there are 2 basic kinds of wanting.  One I call an “idle want”, this being a want that I have but am unwilling to put forth effort to satisfy, expecting others to do that part for me.  The other I call a “true want”, this being a want that I have and that I will work to satisfy for myself.

You probably think that most Americans give up the Santa Claus myth fairly early in life and start to get more serious about things.  Well, you would be wrong.  Indeed, a dwindling minority do just that, but a growing majority merely substitute Government for Santa Claus.  Then go right on having their idle wants.

I contend that teaching the fine art of wanting, especially idle wanting, has been so successful in the USA that many of our people “want” themselves into the slavery of credit card and other consumer debt.  Just as wanting more house than they can afford has helped us into the current financial “crisis”.

Most of us have seen the recent news clip of a woman telling our new president how she wants a house, a kitchen and a car.  And, did said president respond, “be glad you were born here because, in this country you can work hard and have everything you want”.  Not at all.  Instead, if I heard correctly, he instructed a member of staff to get the woman’s name and address.  Presumably so that Uncle Sam Claus could pay her a visit.

As well, most of us are aware of the woman in California (where else?) who wants more children that she (read we) can possibly support.  So, some mal-practitioner, masquerading as a medical doctor, provides her with in vitro fertilization sufficient to raise her baby/body count to 14.  But, hey — she wants them.

Notice that, thus far in my rant, I have not used the word “need”.  This is because, in our country, we have so much more than we actually need as to have made the word more-or-less obsolete.

To make matters even worse, our sorry excuse for a government plays on our constant idle wanting by telling us we should want, even demand, what other have.  Simply because THEY have them and WE want them.  Not in the least because we deserve those things, have worked for them, would work for them, or, in fact, even need them.  No.  Don’t honor the system that lets these “others” satisfy their wants while we go on wanting.  No.  Despise the crooks.  Who do they think they are anyway?

Well (you saw this coming, right?) I propose to tell you who they are and how most of these supposed crooks got where they are (assuming they earned it rather than stealing it with government assistance).  Indeed, while the free enterprise system lasts in this country, anyone can do what they have done.  You see, most of them focused more on what OTHERS want than on what they want for themselves.  Many of them put their own wants totally aside, sometimes for a long period of time, while they focused on what others want.  And, (this is the important part) they focused on how to PROVIDE what the others want – while making a profit for themselves in the process.

We have several names for these people.  The ignorant call them crooks, greedy business people and the like.  The more enlightened call them entrepreneurs.  And, a lot of people on both sides of the issue end up calling them boss.

Yes, my friends, all one really has to do to flourish in a system of free enterprise, in a free and open marketplace, is learn what others want then figure out how to deliver it to them at a profit.  Does this require an MBA from Harvard?  Not at all.  In fact, once your enterprise grows enough, you can hire all of those you want.  Does it require advanced degrees in the sciences?  Nope.  You can hire those too, if you want them.  In fact, if you want to start a business, there are loads of folks already out there, running their own businesses, for the express purpose of providing you whatever you want to get your own business started, to grow it, and to flourish.

Now, I have to tell you, I find it hard to understand how anyone can manage to be poor, to have less than they truly want, with such an almost magical system just sitting there wanting to be used.  Yet, too many of us have allowed ourselves to be convinced that said system is evil.  That it only allows the greedy to feed on the downtrodden.  That it needs to be taxed and regulated out of existence to make room for more government.

Have any of you ever stopped to consider what governments, all types of governments, are really good at?  And I am referring here to Democracies, Republics, Monarchies, Dictatorships, you name it.  All you need do is glance across history to find the answer.  They are consistently good at stealing resources from the producers then using them for the aggrandizement of the so-called leaders.  Inevitably, said aggrandizement leads the “leaders” to play at war, using their people as the fuel the war machines consume.

Will we ever have enough of this?  Will we ever step up to the responsibility each of us has for our self, and stop this madness?  Or will we continue to let our idle wants drive us into servitude?  All you need to do is decide what you truly want then act accordingly.

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