When President Barack Obama hauled off and slapped American small-business owners in the mouth the other day, I wanted to dream of my father.
But I didn’t have to close my eyes to see my dad. I could do it with my eyes open.
All I had to do was think of the driveway of our home, and my dad’s car gone before dawn, that old white Chrysler with a push-button transmission. It always started, but there was a hole in the floor and his feet got wet in the rain. So he patched it with concrete mix and kept on driving it to the little supermarket he ran with my Uncle George.
He’d return home long after dark, physically and mentally exhausted, take a plate of food, talk with us for a few minutes, then flop in that big chair in front of the TV. Even before his cigarette was out, he’d begin to snore.
The next day he’d wake up and do it again. Day after day, decade after decade. Weekdays and weekends, no vacations, no time to see our games, no money for extras, not even forMcDonald’s. My dad and Uncle George, and my mom and my late Aunt Mary, killing themselves in their small supermarket on the South Side of Chicago.
There was no federal bailout money for us. No Republican corporate welfare. No Democratic handouts. No bipartisan lobbyists working the angles. No Tony Rezkos. No offshore accounts. No Obama bucks.
Just two immigrant brothers and their families risking everything, balancing on the economic high wire, building a business in America. They sacrificed, paid their bills, counted pennies to pay rent and purchase health care and food and not much else. And for their troubles they were muscled by the politicos, by the city inspectors and the chiselers and the weasels, all those smiling extortionists who held the government hammer over all of our heads.
read the rest here
It’s great.
This reminds me of the comment I made to Greg the other day here;
No one ever questions the magnitude of wealth destroyed, or prevented from being built, by the extraordinary amount of government intervention, regulation, legal extortion, and outright theft.
Of course, Greg talks quite a bit about the “big boy” corporations who muscle or bribe their way into areas of the economy and “growing” wealth, but fails to note that the reason such action goes on is that government, through it’s numerous levels and multitude of regulations allows that to happen. And so much of it is actually the fault of liberal/progressive policies that increase the number of people a business has to deal with in government just to make a buck or two. If you are lucky enough to have gained that buck or two, then the method of “growing” your wealth hinges on exactly how much wealth you have to influence the politicians and government bureaucrats who come knockin’ at your door. The mob were amateurs compared to the various governments one has to deal with.
Continue to vote for liberal/progressives and what you get is an ever increasing number of government thugs at your door with their hand out looking for bribes, tax payments, fees, and recompense for the “opportunity” government gives you.