By Louis Avallone
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There’s the cereal “Lucky Charms.” Then there’s Frank Sinatra’s signature song, “Luck Be a Lady.” In downtown New Orleans, you can enjoy a “Lucky Dog” hot dog. Of course, most everyone has a lucky number and is looking for a lucky break, or to get on a lucky streak. Sometimes we all feel lucky. Other times it’s just tough luck. Sometimes we luck into something else. Or make a lucky guess. And thank our lucky stars. There’s the luck of the Irish, of course. There’s dumb luck. And potluck. Often folks will have beginner’s luck.
And these days, the folks in Washington are talking more and more about luck also – and how to generate millions of dollars in revenue by taxing the so-called “lucky” for their success that was apparently brought on by chance, rather than through their own choices. Remember Democrat Minority Leader Dick Gephardt? He said that the successful ones were merely the “winners of life’s lottery” and “have a moral obligation to share their good fortune.”
Of course, this “share the wealth” ideology is by no means an original thought, nor is it a successful one, historically speaking. Just ask the people of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania, and the USSR. They all rejected such Marxist ideology in the latter part of the last century and chose, instead, a transition toward private property rights and a free market, capitalist system.
But the Obama administration doesn’t understand why, apparently. They continue recycling (and campaigning on) such failed ideology; stirring up discontent by promising relief from the very misery that was created by the administration’s failed, Marxist-like policies to begin with.
But Obama couches it all very cleverly, so you have to listen carefully. He says, “It’s a basic reflection of our belief that those who benefited most from our way of life can afford to give back a little bit more.” After all, his call for higher taxes simply “asks the most fortunate among us to pay their fair share, just like everybody else.” Apparently Obama forgets that one in every two Americans do not even pay income tax, and that the top 50 percent of American income earners pay almost 97 percent of all federal income taxes collected.
But you know, these facts, and the historical evidence of failed ideologies, all just seem to get in the way of the campaign politics of rich versus poor, or rather, fortunate versus unfortunate.
Now the word “fortunate” is defined in the dictionary as “deriving good from an unexpected source.” Some might call this “luck.” But whatever you call it, if this administration thinks that you are either “fortunate” or “lucky,” they want a piece of the action.
And since Obama is using the word “fortunate” so frequently these days, this got me thinking about how often do folks experience some financial windfall from an unexpected source. A lottery ticket would be an unexpected source, I think, considering how unexpected winning would be with the odds as high as one in 3,838,380.
But what about deriving good from an expected source? Is that “fortunate”? Or something else? Take a diamond mine, for example. Let’s say we all board a bus, early one morning, headed for the Craters of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. When we arrive, we’ll have lots of choices. Some folks may choose to go directly into the diamond field and start mining. Others may head to the snack shop for refreshments, or go to the gift shop, water park, or tour the exhibits inside the visitor’s center.
Some in our group will mine for diamonds all day long, despite the heat and messiness. Others may mine for a while, and some may not mine at all. The park ranger will tell us that finding diamonds usually depends on how much time you spend searching or how hard you want to work. But if you were one of the ones that mined for diamonds all day long, should you be forced to share your diamonds with the folks who spent the much of the hot day in the air-conditioned comfort of the snack shop, eating corn dogs and cooling off on the “slip-n-slide” at the water park?
That doesn’t seem fair, even though we know that sharing with others is a Christian principle, and not an imposition. But I believe it’s like President Kennedy said, “Americans need a helping hand, not a hand out.” So, if the guy, who spent much of the day eating corn dogs, lacks the skills to dig for diamonds, I’ll teach him. If he lacks the tools to dig with, I’ll let him borrow mine.
But the bottom line is that there is nothing “lucky” or “fortunate” about the guy, or gal, who steadily mined in the diamond field all day long, enduring the heat, wiping the sweat from their brow, and straining their muscles until they were sore, all while forgoing the snack shop, or the other more comfortable and leisurely attractions at the park.
I say that the guy, or gal, who unearthed any diamonds in that field, is neither “fortunate” nor “lucky.” The unearthed diamonds were predictable products of their hard work. As Thomas Jefferson said, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” Americans will always contribute their fair share to pay for our federal government. Let’s just not do it all on the backs of the “lucky” ones, or we’re likely to end up with no “luck” at all.