re: What’s your age, occupation & core political ideology

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ETA: WTF is a paleo conservative?

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People who claim to be all about Liberty and freedom but want to enforce their social morals on others through legislation, i.e. big government.

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Oh I don't see it as an either/or. I simply find the "You didn't build that" crap offensive as hell.

Here is the deal Tchoup:
In Europe it is likely your family would never have had the opportunity to avail itself of hydrocarbons on your property, because land is owned based on medieval nobility. Your family attained wealth in ways most Europeans would find inconceivable. What you are living is really a uniquely American opportunity.

The composition of the world's richest individuals speaks to that opportunity. It is dominated by Americans. The Walton's inherited theirs as 2nd gens. The rest are new money, new American money.

It is something we take for granted. We shouldn't. The ability of individual Americans to suddenly acquire wealth, either thru good fortune or calculated patience/planning/toil, is the foundational essence of exceptionalism. The ability of a literal bastard, born to an oddball middle-class mother, to become the nation's Chief Executive is the epitome of American Exceptionalism. It is American opportunity manifested. Yet Obama wanted none of that truth. Instead, he attached extrapolated anticolonial jealousy of the father he barely knew to this country.

Until Obama, wealth was something which was a source of pride. Created or inherited, it mattered little, Americans sought it with pride. Enter BHO stage left. Obama inspired and encouraged a Leninesque wealth-envy. Suddenly inherited wealth was a liability, a potential target for state encouraged theft. I have zero patience for that Leninist-Maoist crap.

Anyway, I'd view the above as expressions of Rugged Individualism.

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fricking Bravo.

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You don't think so?

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No. Not in any sense of the word is Little Lord Fauntleroy "rugged".

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Psychologist
Strict Constitutionalist.

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That's rugged individualism.

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No one here seems to be getting the point due to preconceived notions.

I am not saying that rugged individualism is a bad thing. I am saying that generational accumulation of wealth is better. Our government should be promoting generational accumulation of wealth by not taxing it. If the government wants to PROMOTE rugged individualism, they would tax inheritance at 100% and force everyone to make their own way. Making one's own way is great and all, I just don't think the government should be in the business of promoting that way of life.

Personally, I've experienced both. I left home at 16, finished high school and got a job. I was able to save up enough money working to pay for a year of college. During that year I got another job which paid for the rest. Although it took me 7 years to get an undergraduate degree, I paid for it myself, and graduated debt free. I then started my professional career. It wasn't until 10 years into my professional career that I started to realize the benefits of inheritance when my grandmother passed. I was well on my way to making it on my own (had bought a house), but I also wasn't going to turn down any inheritance based on some romantic notion of rugged individualism.

I believe that generational wealth accumulation is actually DISCOURAGED in this country, and "rugged individualism" is the ploy to get us to de-value it.

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Assistant Director of Construction & Renovation @ a University (Blessed)

Rockefeller Republican (endangered species)

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Rockefeller Republican (endangered species)

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what is this?

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I believe that generational wealth accumulation is actually DISCOURAGED in this country, and "rugged individualism" is the ploy to get us to de-value it.

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You seem to be putting them at opposite ends of the spectrum. I see rugged individualism as the stepping stone towards generational wealth for those that haven't achieved it yet.

I agree with you on government not doing more to promote generational wealth accumulation, but then again look at how the federal government currently manages its own wealth and you'll see why it doesn't.

We went from a President that actually paid down the debt some to one that doubled the debt we had when he came into office to one that more than doubled the debt the previous one incurred. We're still running an average half-trillion in extra debt accumulation each year and that will only be exacerbated as interest rates rise.

It's hard for someone to teach something they can't do themselves.

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