![American exceptionalism isn’t something we should be ashamed of, nor should we as Americans blame others for our own financial misfortunes as each American holds the key to his or her own destiny. We live in a country where anyone from any background is allotted the opportunity to become a success at whatever they choose to do. [...]](http://guymanningham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/man-of-the-week-erick-erickson-redstate.jpg "GM’s Man of the Week: Erick Erickson")
American exceptionalism isn’t something we should be ashamed of, nor should we as Americans blame others for our own financial misfortunes as each American holds the key to his or her own destiny. We live in a country where anyone from any background is allotted the opportunity to become a success at whatever they choose to do. Success however, is something that has to be earned. Sadly, entitlement has replaced personal responsibility and accountability. Instead of pushing oneself to overcome obstacles in order achieve the American dream, many people think it should be a given. Today, roughly 53% of Americans are the only ones who pay taxes. Something about this isn’t right.
Erick Erickson thought the same when he founded “We are the 53%” in response to ”We are the 99%” and their followers who currently occupy Wall Street and other locations with protests. Everyone has personal struggles we have to deal with on a daily basis. Protesting Wall Street does not fix the problems. If anything, it compounds them by tying up businesses, thus throwing our economy deeper down the well. When it comes down to it, it’s all about accepting personal responsibility. It’s so much easier to blame someone else than to take a step back and look for ways to fix your current situation.
In the Army, they promoted a doctrine of “policing up your own area,” which is something I think applies to life in general. Do not worry about what the other guy is doing. Just take care of yourself and and drive on.
Here are some of response pictures of members of “We are the 53%” to the similar “99%” images
For more info, click here.
If you chose to pay outrageous taxes so all the Illegal aiens can have multiple babies covered on welfare , and take benefits away from the elderly who worked there whole lives to have it given away to said people who put nothing in it .So if you believe by letting the government continue to to be ruled by big corporations just sit back and be the 53%. When your on the street because you lost your job to a company that moved to korea or another foreign land don’t forget your comments against those who don’t have a job or a home by no faut of there own. Greed is what is breaking this country.
You say, greed is what is breaking this country. Interesting. It is greed that fuels the protests of Wall Street. The greedy protesters demand something for nothing. They see people who have money and want it for their own. Most business owners are hard-working, honest Americans. Of course there are exceptions to any rule, but to generalize them all as greedy is ridiculous.
I agree taxes are way too high. But increasing taxes on the rich (i.e. those who create jobs) is not going to work. History has proven that free market capitalism works. What we have in Washington is crony capitalism. It’s a huge difference. To protest on Wall Street is backwards thinking. These people have no coherent message or organization. They just want anarchy and hand-outs. The reason many companies move to foreign countries is because our current administration makes it highly difficult for a company to stay afloat here. The number one reason to start a business is to make money. That’s not greed. That’s trying to better yourself and your family. If you want change (and not the Obama kind), I suggest you vote according to policies you wish to see in action. Protesting and rioting does nothing but further deepen the hole.
I couldn’t have said it any better. Great post, Shannon.
“I don’t want to waste my life waiting tables and sitting and doing data entry.”
“…you SHOULD be pissed off”
“…voluntary slavery. Where they work constantly as hard as they can to just get by. Good on them, but I don’t want that America.”
There are plenty of people who have led completely fulfilled lives working diligently at jobs you snobs think are demeaning. To expect (demand, “fight for” – although I see little fighting, just bickering) the glamorous jobs and lifestyles that Hollywood sells in order to find fulfillment is pathetic. There is more to life than how you make a living.
I am hardly a “USEFUL IDIOT FOR THE CORPORATE CROWD” – I am frugal with my spending and hardly ever buy brand name items unless they’re on clearance. I’d sure love to have a 6-figure income, but I choose to live on what I make rather than chase that particular dream. I certainly don’t buy into what the trends (corporate-led, remember) tell me I should wear, drive, make phone calls on, and drink in the morning (at $4.50 a cup). There are more important things in life than luxury. I could chase that carrot if I wanted to – nobody’s depriving me of that opportunity, I just don’t need it to be content. And since I’m not genetically equipped to make it on my looks or athletic skills or brilliant ideas, I can only blame my parents for that. Maybe I should OCCUPY MOM’S STREET!
The ludicrous irony is that the protesters are targeting the corporate types who have the kind of jobs they say they have a right to – they want to be the people they’re blaming because they don’t have what they have, but they’re not willing to put in the 60 hours a week it took those people to get there! I doubt anyone who worked 60 hours to get ahead did so because an employer required it. Initiative–working higher than the bar is set, taking responsibility–is rewarded.
Well said, sir! You should be a writer for GuyManningham. I’m all for taking America back, but it’s about taking it out of the hands of the whiny entitled cry babies and reestablishing America as a country led by hardworking individuals such as you and I. God bless America!
All I can see is that these people want the 9-5 40 hour work week to be a thing of the past. I work, go to school and I have time to go out and have a good time. All these people are advocating is voluntary slavery. Where they work constantly as hard as they can to just get by. Good on them, but I don’t want that America. I don’t want to waste my life waiting tables and sitting and doing data entry.
As for Mr. Marine up there, he’s “working through college”? As a former Airman, I have to ask what did he do wrong to not get his GI Bill? His “no health insurance”? Bull! He can go register at any VA center and get cheap treatment. And I find it hard to believe that any Marine would get out of service at straight 0% disability. Unless he didn’t finish at least 2 years of service.
As for “getting a job” There aren’t any! It took me 8 months just to find a job waiting tables! One manager told me there were 75 candidates for the 1 waiting job. I have 4 coworkers with bachelor’s degrees and several more about to graduate. I shouldn’t have shell out $50,000 to work a minimum wage job! This isn’t my America and it shouldn’t be yours.
I’d rather be 99%
It’s true that there aren’t many jobs out there and the economy is in the crapper, but what does protesting and rioting solve? It’s like trying to put out a fire with kerosene. Employers are less willing to hire because of the uncertainty of Obamacare, high taxes and the “Jobs Bill.” You have to look at it from the employer’s perspective since they are the only ones who control job creation. The government has no control over it (as much as they desperately try). These protests are doing nothing but directly killing local businesses around the demonstration areas and indirectly nationwide.
I’m an Army veteran and college graduate. The G.I. Bill and Army College Fund helped, but I still owe $50k in student loans. College is far too expensive these days, reason being you have to pay for garbage classes that you don’t need. College would be so much cheaper if they would drop all the political correct classes ending in “Studies.”
The best way to change the current economic woes is to voice your opinion through voting. Vote for candidates and representatives who you think have the best interest of the economy at heart. There are some candidates out there who have some great ideas that will boost the economy and help get our country back on track. I agree with you that this is not my America. We need to stick together as Americans and make it great like it once was.
Pick up your local paper and there are a TON of job postings, people saying that there are no jobs make me sick, they feel it is beneath them to flip burgers, wait tables, shovel shit, etc… these people would rather sit at home and collect unemployment for their 99 weeks, then when it runs out, the lazy bastards want to hold a rally!!! I put 60 hours a week, why? To provide for my family! I’m not standing around picketing somebody who makes more money because I feel it’s unfair!! Guess what life is unfair! All these whiners make me sick, ‘”Whah somebody has a better house than me!” “whah somebody drives a nicer car than me” ” Whah somebody pays less taxes than me…. Why don’t you bitch about the person you see in the mirror, instead of blaming everybody else!
Good point, Jim. It used to be a shameful act against your manhood to collect unemployment. Now it’s a lifestyle.
I do not understand any off this. I truly don’t. Whining? Begging for handouts?
Those people are protesting, fighting the system, trying to right what they believe is wrong. What could be a bigger testament to their ethic than that? Plus they are not fighting to ‘take other people’s money’ , they are fighting for jobs and equal chances. Besides, this whole crap about everyone already having equal chances in America, you know that is simply factually inaccurate. It is just not true. And if all these corporations create all these jobs, then why aren’t they doing that? Taxes are at their lowest, but unemployment in the States is soaring. The right wants to find more scapegoats that are supposedly blocking the allmighty job creators from creating these millions of jobs. First it was regulations, then taxes, now it’s the EPA???? That’s right, clean air is killing jobs.
And this idiot who is now the man of the week is utterly pathetic. The guy works 3 VERY lucrative jobs, including being a paid anchor on CNN and a radio host which paid the former guy who held that position about 165k a year. This dude is rich and he even posted about how happy he is that he bought a house at a low cost, making use of other people’s tasty misery. His words not mine. I don’t hate the guy cause he’s rich, got no problems with that. But his ridiculous pretending to be poor so he can get other people on his side… Disgusting.
If you haven’t had 4 straight days off in years, you SHOULD be pissed off, if you work 60 hrs but get paid for 45, you SHOULD be pissed off. The occupy Wall Street guys are at least fighting their injustice, all these guys up here in the photos are fighting each other. The stuff the Occupy – ers are fighting for will benefit even the creepy dude from the picture with the white tie who looks like he’s going to come to the office with a sawed off shotgun one day.
All I can say is, I’m glad I’m not from the States. I live in the Netherlands, with socialized medicine (meaning universal healthcare) that everyone loves, state sponsored college tuition, several weeks vacation, state sponsored news channels (so no Fox News bullcrap) etc.
Screw this, I’m off to get a bong hit and some hookers. (Just joking, that’s just what everyone thinks we Dutch do).
There’s a simple reason you don’t understand any of it. You are a socialist.
“We live in a country where anyone from any background is allotted the opportunity to become a success at whatever they choose to do.”
What a bunch of horseshit.
You are living in a dreamworld if you think this is how this country works.
I was born poor in a broken home on government assistance. I joined the Army, paid for my education, worked my ass off and now I co-own this company with my brother. I would say that is an American success story. Perhaps it’s your positive outlook on life that is preventing you from getting ahead (joking of course). The world doesn’t owe you anything. If you want it, you have to go out and get it yourself. We as Americans have it lucky. In other countries, I wouldn’t have had the chance to rise from nothing. Only in America is the term “self-made man” a common phrase. I suggest you man-up and quit looking for excuses.
I just read a GREAT description of you “53 percenters”:
USEFUL IDIOTS FOR THE CORPORATE CROWD
Keep bending over and taking it!
As you sip your Starbucks® coffee and munch on your Bruegger’s® bagel, think about what you just said. Keep taking what? The innovations and economic prosperity true capitalism has given to our country? Okay…I will take as much of that as possible. The term “useful idiots” is a communist phrase used to describe those who are seen to unwittingly support a malignant cause (i.e. the Occupy protesters). There is no common rationale between any of the useful idiots out there protesting. They just want something for nothing and think they are entitled to it. I’ve been to several Tea Party rallies and never once witnessed anything remotely racist. There was no destruction of property, no hate or violence and all the supporters shared the common goal of lower taxes, lower government spending, decrease in the size and power of government and abiding the Constitution of the United States of America. On the contrary, look at the Occupy protesters. Violence, hate, greed and racism against “evil Jews” seems to be the foreground of their entire movement. No wonder why they have support from the KKK, Neo-Nazis, Communist Party USA, North Korea and Iran. Call me a useful idiot, but that’s something I refuse to get behind.
“My theory of self-made men is, then, simply this; that they are men of work. Whether or not such men have acquired material, moral or intellectual excellence, honest labor faithfully, steadily and persistently pursued, is the best, if not the only, explanation of their success.” – Frederick Douglass (Self-Made Men – 1859)
What did Ben Franklin say? A penny saved is a penny earned? In todays society these people believe its a welfare given is a welfare entitled? Yes this country did bail out Wall Street, yet this country bails out the average american EVERYDAY, people we live in AMERICA land of the free home of the brave, people die trying to come here, yet people who live here and have never been anywhere else complain the most, I am sorry for rambling, it’s because I am on a break at my JOB! and I have the freedom to sit at a computer and ramble on! Plain and simple people, expect nothing from somebody else, tie up those boot straps, look in the mirror and do something for your self!
My 78 year old conservative mother and her veteran husband worked hard all their lives, and during a cancer scare they made a mistake and paid one house payment late. The greedy bank refused their payment, and essentially stole the house and their $135,000 in equity, only to sell it to an investor for half of what they owed. The bank even refused to sell the house to family. Now their health insurance policy has been cancelled, and my mother needs a costly surgery in order to see. I can only hope that all your hatred for those who you believe are undeserving is silenced by the reality that you and your family could easily become the very same people you and the 1% so readily trounce upon. If it happened to my parents, it can happen to you too.
Sorry to hear your unfortunate story, but we all have our own sob story. I’m not in defense of banks or the government by any means. I just think the Occupy movement is a bunch of cry-babies with no coherent message. What will it solve to protest, riot and hold the economy hostage? It’s backwards, childish thinking. If you are unhappy with the world, change it for the better. Rioting and picketing just hurts the small business owners in that community. You talk about the selfishness and greed of corporations. What about the selfishness and greed of the protesters?
Any movement needs exposure. If all we did was advocate for ourselves no one would know the suffering and/or possible solutions to the problems. OWS protesters have focused the spotlight on the problems that face many good and hardworking citizens. Suppose the question is whether the focus of such suffering is sufficient notice to and for our legislators to make change. Recently no other route both exposed inequities and united the people as much as OWS. As for collateral damage as a consequence – Our government and corporations encourage attrition within their ranks, so why is it wrong for the protesters to be associated with similar conditions by the mere fact of their presence and negative media? The focus should be upon why OWS exists, not solely upon the squalor, police intervention and/or businesses suffering further declines to their income levels. Compare the huge number of foreclosures, the growing income gap, huge corporate profits and then consider how few businesses are really affected.
Leave it to a liberal to not understand logic. Advocating violence and hate mongering as a means to showcase what’s wrong in the world seems a bit backwards. By the way, I sincerely doubt your grandmother lost her house after being late on one payment. These sob stories and hand-written signs that supposedly represent 99% of Americans are simply a means to pull heart strings in order to agree with the movement. Everyone has their own hardships to overcome. Instead of playing the blame game, look in the mirror and ask yourself, “What can I do to improve myself and my current situation?” Don’t automatically blame everyone else through class warfare and envy. At some point in America, responsibility and personal accountability took a backseat to finger-pointing and the feeling that the world owes you something.
I agree that there should be major changes in politics. Corporations, lobbyists and unions should not be able to bully elections and legislation through contributions, threats or other means. Crony capitalism is not free market capitalism. You might want to look up the difference before further engaging in this debate. All of the issues you speak of are a direct result of big government sticking their slimy fingers into our lives. No other President has been more involved in crony capitalism than Obama, which is the template of Chicago-style politics if you know anything about history. It just shows how naive you and the rest of the Left are to suggest that the only solution is more government.
Demanding more social programs in hopes of fixing issues caused by big government in the first place is like demanding that your rapist wear a condom. It doesn’t solve the problem at all.
Fact is, if you legitimately want less government corruption, less crony capitalism, deficit cuts and the economy to get back on track, you need to vote for the most Conservative candidate with Libertarian values.
The violence you talk of arrives when antagonists show up and spit upon peaceful demonstrators in an attempt to create a volatile situation. Otherwise the protests have been peaceful, with the exception of the police stabbing their batons at women.
Missing one payment and proceeding straight to foreclosure is factual, but know there’s no way to prove to you that others may have suffered at the hands of predators. That is, not until it happens to you or someone very close to you.
Best of luck with your radical views, and your obvious lack of compassion for those who aren’t able to pull themselves up from the depths. As a liberal I’m proud to say that many years ago I knew Marshall Fritz, and as a libertarian he exhibited compassion for mankind. More than I can say for those who prefer the slash and burn mentality.
Sad to realize there are so many close-minded people out there.
I’m done!
I have many friends in the finance and real estate industries. Not one of them has ever heard of someone losing their house over one late payment. Nice try, though. Please save your anti-American rhetoric for other websites with uneducated readers who are more likely to be duped into feeling guilty for being successful.
Those compassionate acts you keep referring to, such as government programs and financial assistance, do nothing but push the poor further down and make them more dependent on the rest of us, therefore widening the gap between rich and poor. Duh!
If you want the government in control of every aspect of your life, I hear North Korea is nice this time of year. That is not the American way. Are you sure you aren’t confusing Marshall Fritz with Karl Marx? Newsflash, sweetheart: the more people who jump into the wagon, the less there are to push the wagon. I give to charities and volunteer all the time; GIVE and VOLUNTEER being the operative words. The Left is so quick to point fingers and demonize those who worked hard to get where they are today. Your political and sociological ideals are fueled by greed and envy, under the guise of compassion for the poor.
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” – Margaret Thatcher
I have to say that this lady karen has no clue as to what she is talking about! In no way shape or form have i ever heard of any bank or lender that would take a house from someone that was only one payment behind. I think you need to ask more questions of your grandparents and see if they lied to you about what actually happened that they had their home taken away from them? also, she stated that her grandfather was a veteran, well i am sorry honey, but the government does not turn their back on their vets. there are hundreds of programs from healthcare to va loans and a whole bunch of other programs that assist veterans! so before you go and get your panties in a bunch, you might want to get all the facts! as fars as the protesters go, come on, i would like to see some stats as to who these protesters are and if they are unemployed or if they are collecting unemployment benefits? because, if they are unemployed and they have time to go and live in a tent city and protest, then they should be putting that time and effort into finding a job! as for the rest of the people that say there are no jobs out there, that is a load of crap! i read the paper everyday and it is filled with places looking to hire! the problem is that the bleeding hearts do not know what it means to work your way up the ladder! they just want to be handed the top shelf right out of the gate! the bad thing is that people are saying that america is in a downward spiral, i have to agree. because it is all these people who would rather sit on the steps of the white house and boo hoo rather then get up and make it strong again! the bleeding hearts cried when the u.s. military were using waterboarding and other forms of interegations to rough up the enemy, but cheered when the navy seals took bin laden down! now what kind of sense does that make! it is people like this karen woman that is make this country weaker by supporting the bleeding heart liberals. I myself am a former marine and proud american, but it hurts my heart and my pride to hear things like this karen woman is saying, when she has no clue as to what she is talking about! and i have to give props to my man GUY who is not afraid to stand these bleeding hearts bastards up and say enough is enough! this is our country and if you dont like it, then leave!
Thanks for your support, Derick. Semper Fi.