The American Way

The American Way, the essential fundamental concept which defines America, is Winner takes all, and the Loser is trampled in the dust.

There are a lot of things right and wrong with America, but we will discuss one particular aspect of America here. It is not the only country in the world based on these principles, but being one of the largest economies, it is the most prominent one.

Why is this Winner takes all approach a good thing?

In almost all countries in the Westernized World, the government has taken on the role of a seemingly benign and benevolent agent which wants to take care of those who fell on hard times. This sharing and caring Socialist approach popular in Europe, Canada, Scandinavia is claimed to be 'winner takes some more, and the loser takes some less'. To achieve these aims, they promise to 'tax the rich', but end up extorting from the middle class and minorities as that is easier. For every $1 the government takes, $0.17 trickles down to the needy.

This demoralizes the engine of the economy made up of the middle class and the minorities. It sucks the life, energy and happiness out of the economy.

A middle-class family any where in the westernized world earning about US $150k/year will pay at least 50% of their income as direct and indirect taxes. The excuse for this is that the government is taking care of the less fortunate. If you research into what the 'less fortunate' get, you will be shocked at the tiny percentage(~17%) of what was taken as taxes ends up with the less fortunate. The rest is just government overhead. It is a politically popular but extremely inefficient way to take care of the less fortunate.

Yes, the 'Government will take care of it', but will charge you an arm and a leg.

An example of this 'caring and sharing' approach is for the Government to give handouts to struggling homeowners. The America Way is for homeowners to rent their room using AirBnb, or to supplement income with driving for Uber/Lyft, or to improve your skills and get a job that pays more.

Why would you want the government to take $1 from someone to give you $0.17? Sadly, a lot of people want their government to steal from someone else and give it to them as handouts. Politicians are happy to oblige, the Government is happy to enable it, and the corporations are happy to administer it. They all have their snouts in the trough and their two front trotters as well. The fact that the handouts are extorted from someone else is glossed over by men in expensive suits, liberal corporate media, and conveniently forgotten by all.

In the American Way, if you are a winner, you are expected to save and invest wisely, make friends and be popular. Build your safety net yourself with friends, family, and investments. Make hay while the sun shines. You are responsible for your destiny. If you are not a winner, stand up on your two feet and let the success tempt you and inspire you to do well in life.

Sadly, the American Way has been corrupted. There is very little social mobility in America, privilege is more important than abilities, success is arbitrary, society is undergoing reverse evolution, and the myth of American Dream is dead.

The corruption in the Capitalist American Way is not a reason to replace it, but to fix it. As an analogy, if the air or water is dirty, clean it. If the system is corrupt, fix it.

Replacing a corrupted system with another without any assurance that the new system will not get corrupted is not worth the effort at best, and dangerous at worst.

What starts as 'caring and sharing' government that will 'take care of it all' gets bigger, bloated and entitled. It joins hands with the corporate sector to become a fascist regime. Does this not explain the rise of fascism in several countries in the Westernized World that already have big governments?

America doesn't need Socialism or a caring sharing European or Canadian or Scandinavian economic model. It just needs to be more American and go back to its roots of authentic capitalism instead of the corrupted cronyism we have today.

The essence of America is for the winner to be richly rewarded. This inspires average people to excel, and inspires those who don't succeed to try again. America doesn't need a new system which sucks life out of the winners, middle class, and minorities under a false promise of feeding a few crumbs to the less fortunate.


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