Progressives want America to buy into their cartoonish vision about rich people.
They want voters to believe that only white people can get rich in America; rich white people have always been rich, and rich white people had ancestors who made their fortunes by owning slaves. They think America is a caste system like India where no one can ever move up or down the socio-economic scale.
They need to meet Gary from China.
I met Gary from China at an event to raise funds for a Christian study center at one of UNC’s public university locations. Gary was born in rural south China 52 years ago. His family was literally dirt-poor which is sort of weird since progressive socialists such as Bernie Sanders say everyone who lives under collectivist government control such as in China, Cuba and the former Soviet Union lead great lives, not poverty-stricken ones.
Winston Churchill summed up collectivist government the best: “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy…. (t)he inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
Gary’s mother raised her two boys alone. She moved them at a young age to the safe and extremely prosperous haven of Hong Kong. However, when she saw the encroachment of communist Chinese control coming to Hong Kong, she followed legal immigration laws and moved her boys to inner-city Los Angeles when Gary was a young teenager.
Gary understood hardly any English when he moved to Los Angeles. He learned enough to do well in high school, especially in math and science, which are their own universal languages in many ways. He earned a 1/3 scholarship to attend the University of California, most likely paid for by a rich white Berkeley alum. He was on a work program which paid for 1/3 of his education, and he took out a loan to cover the rest.
No free college education for Gary from China. He worked for it.
Gary earned a degree in chemical engineering and went to work for the nuclear power division of General Electric. He gravitated into the Silicon Valley biotech world, where he has taken two companies public and has just raised $71M for his most recent venture.
His brother is CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Despite all odds, Gary and his brother have achieved the American Dream in less than 25 years with no “white privilege” and zero inherited wealth. All they had was a mom who did a herculean parenting job and helped them succeed through a lot of hard work and determination.
This should never have happened according to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and AOC. They believe America is a racist nation where only white people can succeed. Everyone needs their Big Government to make it in this life. How dare anyone do it on their own and prove it did not take a village to make them successful?
“People such as AOC, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden who want us to live like communists don’t know how bad communism is because they have never had to live under it! If they did, they would be the most outspoken defenders of freedom in America — if they lived to tell anyone about it!” Gary emphatically said at the end of our discussion.
“And now they want me to pay 50% of my income to them to pay for whatever they want to spend it on? What have they ever done for me?” he asked plaintively.
According to a survey by a financial market research firm cited by CNBC, 68% of very wealthy people in America today made their wealth themselves in their adult lifetime, not from an inheritance. They did this by providing useful products and services the rest of us want and need. That is the true portrait of American wealth creation in a free market, not the Looney Tunes cartoon version progressives want you to believe.
Gary came to America from abject poverty in China. He has hired hundreds of employees, paid them great wages and benefits and is now working on a pharmaceutical solution to help cancer patients not lose their hair and throw up while undergoing treatment.
Isn’t that enough of a “fair share” for anyone to contribute to America?
