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Richard F. Kessler
________________________________________________________________________ It is time to talk about the destruction of the legacy of more which preceding American generations left to their successors. The founding principle of our nation was our abiding faith in more. American exceptionalism, which made America the envy of other nation in this world, is encapsulated in the word more. This nation was founded on more. Americans have traditionally believed that our country had the unending capacity to produce more goods and services. The country may have had to weather the economic cycle of ups and downs but the trend line of the roller coaster was always up. Today Americans are preparing to destroy their seed stock and abandon abundance. America never was an imperialist nation in the traditional sense. America never made the economies of other nations captive economies so that its own population could have more. American domination was a function of producing more and better goods and services at a lower cost than any other nation. So great was our abundance that America goods and services were shared with the rest of the world. So great was this abundance that America rescued Europe from the forces of destruction in the 20th Century in World War I and II and by successfully opposing Soviet expansionism. What were the sources that drove the great economic engine that kept right on producing more? The first source was immigration. The best and brightest, the most ambitious and intrepid came to our shores to start a new life. They came to have more; they stayed to create more. Americas immigrant demographic is unique. Immigrants arrived from every corner of the earth. They arrived as foreign nationals; they and their offspring became Americans. The rules for newcomers were simple if primitive. Get a job; behave yourself. If you do, you too can claw your way in and get an ever greater slice of the pie. In short, the American message to people everywhere else is come here, become American, make more and receive more. The second source of American economic success was the joinder of private ordering and fundamental freedom. The very liberties that comprise the cornerstone of our civil rights and freedoms nurture and protect each citizens ability to acquire, possess real and personal property. Through savings and investment, Americans also came to enjoy widespread ownership of an interest in the means of production. In Europe and Asia, any peasant was free to eat his bread in the sweat of his labor. Only in America was he able to become the entrepreneur who was able to profit from the sweat of others by owning the bakery that made the bread. If that notion drove Communists into paroxysms of rage concerning exploitation of labor, it also drove the Communists into bankruptcy while American laborers enjoyed the highest standard of living of workers in the rest of the world. The continuing conflict between the norms of distributive justice and egalitarian justice often misperceived as American class

warfare was historically mitigated by increases in the standard of living for all members of the society. A rising tide lifts all boats. The final source of the legacy of more is the common conviction that it is the core mission of government to be the handmaiden of progress. Government exists for no better reason than to make certain that everyone prospers. Today America is celebrating the end of the manned flight space program having launched its final mission to the space station. There is nothing to celebrate. It is an end of an era of boldness, discovery, innovation and technological growth and achievement. The termination of the space program is a microcosm of what is taking place today in American Society. The nation has rejected its legacy of more. Americans have lost faith that the American economy can continue to provide the historic abundance of goods and services Americans require today and in succeeding generations. Today the national discourse at every level of government, whether from Democrats or Republicans, is a conversation concerning how to make do with less. What happened to the conversation carried on by every preceding generation: how can each of us individually, collectively and through government assure that Americans will continue to have more. When faced with the obligation to pay expenses, there has always been a choice between doing with less and reducing expenses or making more income and paying off increased expenses. In either case, immediate gratification must be postponed but only investment leads to growth and a future surplus. Our forefathers well knew that no one ever made money or could make money by going hungry or forcing others to go hungry, being sick or forcing others to be sick, being homeless or driving others from their homes. When did this generation start to become so feckless it elected leaders who believe that the best way to solve our problems is by forcing ourselves and others to do with less? Who sold us these shoddy goods; why do we insist on continuing to do business with the same carpet bagger merchants who sell shoddy goods to us? The greatest danger this nation faces is that its citizens no longer have faith in themselves, each other or their leaders. Our leaders debate who is has the best program to distribute the burden of having less. If the ship of state is sinking, now is not the time to debate who should drown first. The great issue today is how do we create more, not how do we make do with less. Every policy or program should be tested upon this standard: how does this policy contribute to making more for everyone? We must find the courage to reinvest what we have to restore the abundance that is both our shared heritage and birthright. More than any time in living memory, this nation needs to rededicate itself to the principles upon which it was founded and which made it great, Just like the original space program, we need a new program to recover our economy, dedicated to the goal off providing a better way of life for all our citizens.

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