“There’s only so much fortune a man really needs, and the rest is just for showing off.” -- Forrest Gump’s mother.
We are a rich, rich, RICH nation! I don’t need to look at the Forbes’ list to know this. All I need do is look around.
Only in America will you find people traversing the country in their homes replete with kitchen, bedroom, bathroom,
living room, perhaps pulling their vehicle or a trailer loaded with motorcycles, jet skis, bicycles, etc. I guarantee, no
other country lives like that . . . no one else even considers it! What would be the point? Would you want to drive a
motorhome across the deserts of Saudi Arabia, or look for a trailer park in London? No, only in America!
A few years ago Paula and I drove from Spearfish to Anchorage to visit our daughter and family that lived there at
the time. After a couple of days rest from our seven-day journey, we rode the train down to Seward. We took a walk
to the marina that was nearby, and saw there a wide array of RVs that were hitched to huge boats, also likely replete
with kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, etc. The license plates on the motorhomes and trailers were from faraway places
like Texas, New York, and even Florida. I wondered if these people had driven across Canada to get to Alaska, as we
had, or if they had ferried over from somewhere on the Northwest Coast, or somewhere else. Whatever the case, it
begs the question:
“Is there anything too difficult for Americans?”
It should be obvious by this example alone that we are DIFFERENT. Many of us make just enough money to live on,
some of us make enough to do a little more showing off – the DIFFERENCE, however, is that we have far more
opportunity here than anywhere else to live beyond our ‘needs’ to include some of our ‘wants’.
Some seem intent on changing that, however, either out of envy, or contempt, out of ignorance, or just plain
pathological malice. But we need to study closer what these disrupters are advocating because, in return for this socalled utopia that they are offering, what we’ll get instead is just enough to live on – maybe. And I’m not talking here
of just America, but of the whole world.
Take for instance those motorhomes pulling those trailers. The plasma TV in there was likely built in Korea, the
upholstery in the motorhome was likely made in China, the bicycles on the trailer might have been built in Germany
or Italy. There will always be some who begrudge us of our riches, but the reality is that many countries are glad for
it; it could mean THE DIFFERENCE between living a comfortable life with a few pleasurable indulgences included, or
grubbing around for enough food to quiet growling stomachs.
Our agricultural producers will continue to toil and churn our food and fiber because that’s what they are motivated
to do, and as a result many of our basic needs will be met. Even India, they say, with its 1.3 billion population, is selfsustaining in its food production (in fact it’s only in communist countries that you’ll find there is a problem in feeding
their people). As long as we retain “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, we’ll have what we need, and then
some. But if we abandon or fail to uphold our inalienable rights (which come from God, not government), and if we
are deceived into thinking that there is something wrong in the way we are DIFFERENT, we will jeopardize it all.
As I write, there now occurs a worker crisis in our nation; there is a shortage of workers for jobs and services. This is
because a large populace of potential workers actually make more money waiting for a relief check from the federal
government than by showing up for work. It’s a sick situation sponsored by a sick government, and here is where
I’m reminded of Mrs. Gump’s sage comment - “There’s only so much fortune a man really needs, and the rest is just for
showing off.”
The Biden Administration is shamelessly “showing off” with OUR OWN money in a pathetic attempt to tell us they
are helping us with what “we really need”; I don’t know about you, but that type of hypocrisy disgusts me. Those
who perceive of The American Rescue Plan Act [sic] as federal government’s benevolence have been duped because
they fail to recognize THE DIFFERENCE!
Original source can be found here.
