by Brian Boone

I have a highly valued relative who is a genealogy expert.  She can trace my family back to the earliest settlers from Europe.  My great, great, great grandfather, Andrew Jackson Myers, homesteaded property in Northwestern Kansas and was a Union Army soldier who fought in the battle of Allatoona in Sherman’s famous march to the sea.  My grandmother who recently died at the age of 94 in McCook, Nebraska, actually lived with Andrew Jackson Myers for a time when she was a child.

I used to sit and talk for hours to my grandmother Betty from Nebraska and her mother, Blanche, my great grandmother, about their early lives, struggles and their American dream.  Interestingly, they recalled that when they were young and poor (poor according to their standards at the time and compared to some of their neighbors) they were still happy to be living in America and to have the chance to continue to face their own independent struggle and challenge to improve their lives.  My Grandmother was a part of what we called “the greatest generation.”

Isn’t it important to look back where we came from and to hear the stories of people that came before us?  After all, isn’t our history and past a part of the very foundation from which we build and grow as a nation?  I know that this Myers and Carpenter line of my family struggled to provide the basic necessities in early America.  I believe this was the case for many early settlers.  There are more stories like this than there are stories of plantation owners that used slave labor to raise their stake in the claim of wealth and income in the southern colonies.  In fact, my ancestor Myers risked his life and many others like him, coming from humble circumstances, died fighting to end slavery and preserve the union.

America did not have today’s great social safety net and public assistance programs in the 1800’s when my Grandpa Myers lived.  Many died young as they struggled to survive while some barely survived and other’s prospered economically.  And yet people still came to America to set down roots full of hope and promise and were happy to struggle if it meant they would be free to practice their chosen faith and to keep what they earned.  Some prospered more than others but each worked to try and improve their lives and the lives of their children.  It was the goal, I believe, of each family to work to provide any advantage they could for the next generation in the age old human struggle for scarce resources.  The people of that time, whether or not they believed it to be the proper role of government, did not expect their government to take care of them.  What they did expect is freedom to live their lives as they chose and understood that, as such, they had to accept the results born from their own behavior, decisions and fortune even if the neighbor had more success.

Our honorable President has stated that “income differential” is the defining issue of our time.  I am very well educated and credentialed and yet I still do not understand exactly how this issue is truly defined and exactly why this is a big problem for America.  I do not think our leaders have made this clear.  I understand the issue in the abstract and I certainly understand the political genius of President Obama placing this issue on his calling card (for most all American’s there are others who have more wealth and income.)  But if this is the defining issue of our time, isn’t it important for the terms in this discussion to be very clearly defined?

I understand that our President points to what is referred to as an income gap where wealth and annual income are concentrated and “skewed” with 1% of the American people.  The idea is that we need to close this gap and that we need to enact policies that close this gap.  I would like President Obama to define the exact measure, metric and standard that will cause us to conclude we are finally successful?  What is the end game?  Will we not rest and leave the results to the free market until income and wealth are equal for all Americans?  If this is not the end game of new policies, then exactly what will the distribution of annual income experience and wealth look like when we can all breathe a sigh of relief and realize that we have met our goals?

Politicians throw around terms like “wealthy”, “rich”, “poor”, and “living in poverty.”  If “income differential or wealth differential” is the defining moment of our time should these terms be used so loosely by our public servants, our leaders in Sacramento and Washington?  These terms certainly stir our emotions and provide, as such, powerful political rhetoric.  In fact, the terms wealth and income are used interchangeably by many politicians and yet my degrees, credentials, and experience tell me that income and wealth are two very distinct things and that the distinction is important.  This distinction is evidently not important in the political arena.

How can we produce another generation that can earn the distinction of being referred to as the greatest generation?  What if the key determinants for evolution to greatness for my Grandmother’s generation were hardship, struggle and self-relience?  What will future generations look like that are a product of the “new” paradigm that the proper role of government is to take care of it’s people?  Is the strongest tree in the forest the one that depends on stakes to stay rooted or is it the one with the strongest trunk born from its exposure to the elements and its struggle to survive?

Currency allows us to trade and acquire goods and services to meet our needs, to provide for security reserves and possibly luxury.  But no amount of money given to a citizen can afford them, the self-respect, self-satisfaction, strength, and the kind of happiness my Grandmother experienced.  We will all die someday, so preservation of a heartbeat is ultimately a futile goal and a relatively low bar to set for our people.  We need to measure our people and each of their lifetimes, not by the money left behind, but by the extent to which they achieve independence, enjoy the challenge of playing the hand they are dealt, accept the outcome with honor, and appreciate what it truly meant to be free.  Income differential in America is the clearest evidence of true freedom at play.  We should see it as a great symbol of American freedom.  The greatest generation understood freedom to be America’s greatest treasure.  Now, I fear, we want to create a new generation that cannot take ownership of their own lives and that will be dependent wards of the state, shackled to a false promise of purpose and satisfaction.