The Teaching Tool of Capitalism

There are many differences from my generation, and the one my father grew up in during the 1950’s and 60’s.  From the technology and music my generation consumes, much has changed in only two generations. But I’ve found that the overarching difference from the baby boomers to the Millennials is the since of entitlement that is displayed amongst my generation.

Growing up in a hardworking class family-and son to a WWII veteran-my father knew that if he wanted something out of life, it would not be handed to him.  Even though my Grandfather- Robert “Sunny” Mitchell Witherspoon Jr.-died when my father was still a teenager, a strong work-ethic, as well as the understanding that the richest man in town was not to be vilified but yet revered, helped my father to become the successful family man he had set out to be.

My father-Michael Alan Witherspoon Sr.-instilled in me these same values.  As I grew up among many with bigger homes and shinier cars, it could have been easy for my father to display a since of jealousy towards those more well off, however he used it as a motivational tool for me.

You see my father never graduated from college, and it was something he always regretted, yet blamed no one but himself. So he made sure I knew how important a college education was, and without one that I’d always be held back from my career goals.

When my father passed away in 2008, I made a promise to myself to finish school; no matter what.  It wasn’t easy, and there was definitely a bump or two along the way, but I always remembered what my father would say “the world doesn’t owe you anything…if you want something bad enough, you can do it, but you’re going to have to work hard for it.”

I continue to live by this motto today, in that it has helped me become successful in my early job career, whereas so many other Millennials continue to blame rich successful businessmen for holding them down, and at the same time beg the government to forgive their student debts as if they didn’t realize they’d have to pay back the thousands of dollars in student loans one day.

This mindset was one of the main reasons Mitt Romney came up short in last year’s presidential election.  The Obama campaign narrative-that painted Gov. Romney as an evil businessman who cared little about others and only about his own personal wealth, during his time as a former venture capitalist for Bain Capital-worked, and it was the Millennials it rang true to the most.

Breaking for Obama by 23 more points than Romney in 2012, the Millennials proved that there has been a definite culture shift in the youth vote (18-29), seeing John Kerry only carried the youth vote by 9 more points than George W. Bush only eight years ago.

Instead of demeaning public figures such as Mitt Romney because he has been a successful businessman, we should look to them as examples of what hard work and personal responsibility can lead to, for if we continue to condemn the institution of capitalism and lean on our government as a crutch-more and more-America will cease to look like the country that others dream to be.

How Kool-Aid Killed My Generation

I learned to use Windows ’95 before I learned to ride a bike, but unlike many other Millenials I am a conservative. The latter is such a rarity in my generation I have found myself waiting for the day the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service places us on the endangered species list. A generation ago this wasn’t the case. So what happened in this post-Gipper generation that swung the under-30 vote from 20 points for a conservative in 1984 to 26 points for a liberal candidate in 2012? We were introduced to what I call the Kool-Aid, and it was downhill after that.

We became more secular than any generation that came before us, we were fostered in the modern union monopolized public school system, we were given participation trophies, and we were told by “celebrities” that conservatives are intolerable and closed-minded. We drank the promises of income equality, free healthcare, subsidized higher education, affordable housing, government backed retirement, and free cell phones all at the expense of our freedom. Being liberal became the thing “everyone was doing,” while being conservative became a thing of the past. So where has this delirious mindset taken us?

We have become one of the most hindered and enslaved generations in American history. We are $16 trillion dollars in debt, we have gone from a “Free” to “Mostly Free” country, we are no longer one of the top ten prosperous countries in the world, gas prices are well above $4, youth unemployment rate is around 20%, college tuition has risen 1,120% since 1978, and we slander the successful among us while praising the unproductive. And still, as each of us holds a federal debt of in excess of $200,000 over our heads and no statistical chance of receiving Social Security, we continue to drink from the Kool-Aid that’s poisoning us. It is time to wake up Generation Y and Z.

We, the generation that is most supportive of these liberal policies, are the most damaged by these policies. We will be the ones paying for government programs, fighting federal regulations, and living in a country stricken by calamity for the a majority of our lives. This isn’t something we have to accept.

We must reject the notion that the government can better discern our lives for us, and champion the cry for individual liberty and a limited government. It is time for us to reject the false hope of a government nanny state and turn to our founding fathers for guidance on issues of education, spending, taxes, foreign policy, religion, and energy. Their ideals and unique government concept is what caused an immature nation of rebels to become the “city upon a hill.” And those ideals are the only ideals that will ever take us back to such a standing in the world.