Elizabeth Warren said “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.”
You’re not going to see that quote on Fox News, even though the Fox News audience really needs an education on this issue. But it’s the truth. Unless you snapped your fingers and summoned one hundred pounds of gold, your wealth was subsidized, somewhere along the line, by everyday working men and women. Ms. Warren goes on to explain:
You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.
Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.
We all make it possible for the lucky few to become wealthy, even though they like to think that they do it solely by the sweat of their own brow. Do you see any American corporations relocating to Somalia? No? There’s a good reason for that. Somalia has no government. Somalia doesn’t tax anybody, doesn’t educate anybody, doesn’t protect anybody.
Yeah, there’s class warfare in this country, but it’s not the kind you hear about on Fox news. The charge is being led by the Koch brothers, who inherited their money. The charge is being led by Rupert Murdoch, an Australian expatriate with a conservative bent and a ruthless demeanor. It’s being led by all those who gained the most during the Bush years and who, despite evidence that they would flourish even more if there were less income inequality, continue to agitate for every last dollar they can squeeze out of the rest of us.
We need more Elizabeth Warren.
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