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Wed, 03 Sep 2008

Family vs Nation

Barack Obama:

It is that promise that has always set this country apart, that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams, but still come together as one American family - to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well,

Barack, dear, there is no "one American family". You see, families are not run like nations, nor nations like families. In a family (usually; and on death, enforced by the courts), resources are pooled. What the husband earns, the woman earns half of, whether she is working herself, or whether she is a stay-at-home mom.

Same thing; reverse the genders. Keep doing that for the rest of this posting so that I can keep the writing simple.

Families eat meals together. You get what Mom cooked, whether you like it or not. Of couse, Mom also wants her cooking to be appreciated, so she takes the family's tastes into account. Everybody knows each other and there's a small handful of people and they can all be heard as individuals.

Families share a house. The adults running the family have to agree on what furniture to put in the house, what colors to paint the house, how large or small a house they can afford, where the house will be, how many bedrooms it will have, etc. Everything is up to negotiation and the kids get a say also.

I hope, Barack, that you can see that a family makes decisions successfully, that no nation can make. There are simply far too many people, far too many voices, far too many opinions. A nation is not a family, and no comparison should ever be made between the two.

But I'm just one individual, and I doubt that you are listening to me. It's inevitable, then, that I will not get what I want during this election, and that you will disappoint me. There is a solution, though, which could make me like you. STOP DOING THINGS FOR ME THAT I COULD DO MYSELF. Your job is to keep the peace. That's it. Everything else -- including the few things that the Constitution actually calls for you to do: post roads, minting coins, standardize weights and measures, regulate commerce with foreign nations, promoting the useful arts -- all these things I can arrange within the zone of peace that is is your job to create.

Stop doings things for me. Get out of my way. Let me do them myself. I'm not a child, I'm not your child, I'm not part of your family, I'm an adult, I can make my own decisions.

posted at: 00:48 | path: /economics | permanent link to this entry

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