Tom Brokaw has written a book about the Greatest Generation, a generation that grew up with fathers in the home who saw it as their duty to instill in their sons a work ethic. The Greatest Generation went on to win World War II. Newt Gingrich is right when he warns that the newest generation does not understand or appreciate the value of good, hard work.
Tragically, 40 million children will go to bed tonight without a father in the home to teach them the economic facts of life. One wonders how exactly these children will ever learn any kind of work ethic. While in some cases there is a fine mother like mine who can instill it in them, more often than not it's simply not possible.
When I was 10 years old, I wanted an expensive, new 10-speed Schwinn bike. I asked my mother - the late Hollywood actress Jane Wyman, who could easily afford it - if she would simply buy the bike for me.
She said she would loan me the money if I signed a note acknowledging the debt. I said, "Mom, I am only 10 years old. What can I possibly do to make enough money to pay you back?" She told me I could earn money by selling newspapers.
I signed the note, and every Sunday until I fully paid for that bike I sold papers in front of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills. Later I asked Mom why she made me work for that bike when the other kids' parents simply gave them their bikes.
I'll never forget what she told me. She said, "I build men, not boys, and if you don't learn to work for what you want now, you will end up as a 40-year-old boy."
"I want a man."
I pray that that's what she got in her only son. At least that's what I try to be.
On that issue alone, Mom would have voted for Newt Gingrich, who holds the same convictions she did.
World War II was followed by incredible economic growth, which gave the false impression that prosperity was no longer just around the corner, but guaranteed by the power and majesty of the federal government as here and forever present.
What we have now is what has been called "the entitlement generation," Americans who believe that by merely existing they are entitled to a host of unearned benefits paid for by money extracted from their fellow Americans' tax payments.
That the pockets of those American taxpayers are not bottomless - and sooner or later will no longer be available to the tax-and-spend crowd that infests Washington, D.C. - has not reached into the minds of this spoiled generation. They really believe that money somehow grows on trees, or at least on printing presses.
We are fast approaching the time when the Feds will no longer be able to print enough paper dollars to finance their multiple programs which are designed to buy the votes of the nation's taxpayers.
Hard work gave birth to the Greatest Generation; we are giving birth to the neediest.
• Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com, or e-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com.
samkat posted at 6:43 pm on Thu, Dec 8, 2011.
Newt is not exactly an example of good character since he has his hand in the pockets of the taxpayers.
dustbowl11 posted at 3:55 pm on Thu, Dec 8, 2011.
Just what we need, the son of two actors lecturing about hard work. And a political consultant no less! Now there's a hard job. If hard work is so valuable in this society, why do laborers get paid so little?
Rich posted at 1:26 pm on Thu, Dec 8, 2011.
Nice, but a bit old fashioned and fails to recognize reality. When you produce too much, everything becomes worth less. Since about the end of the first world war we have been coping with overproduction, not shortages of labor. What has worked is expanding what we can make, in other words finding and making new things and adding to what is bought. Since WWI you can start listing things like radios, TVs, dish washers, mixers, processors, well just look around your house, how many things are there and 'necessary' that didn't exist when great granddaddy was 'seeing Paree.'
" Newt Gingrich is right when he warns that the newest generation does not understand or appreciate the value of good, hard work." That's not a warning, it's a bit frightening. Good, hard work really has very little value. In fact enough of it will send you into a depression. We don't lack for anything, people are out of work, but the car lots, malls and grocery stores are full of goods. A bunch of good hard work, and we only get more stuff to fill car lots, malls and grocery stores. What we need is imagination, innovation and creativity. None of which you get with a job. We need a new 'insert something nobody else has come up with yet.' The only problem I see is that, as soon as you try, government wants to tell you how, and they don't know how. They want you to overpay for what you don't need, restrict you actions on your own property, and probably get a license of some sort, even though you don't know what it is yet so it's a little tough to 'regulate' it. And therein lies your problem, not in good, hard work. If that were the solution there wouldn't be any unemployment.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 1:08 pm on Thu, Dec 8, 2011.
Sadly, the "Greatest Generation" has now become the "Give-me Generation". Illegal Alien High School students who have cost the American tax-payer, $7,670.00 per year ($92,040.00 total for 12 years)....now feels "entitled" to In-State Tuition fees and the Democrats support this through Obama's "Dream Act".
Low-income families want to live the same "lifestyle of the Rich and Famous". They feel "entitled" to not only not paying any Income Tax but getting a "Income Averaging" refund every year. Food Stamps and Welfare debit-cards given away like confetti. Free... Hundred thousand dollar+ transplant surgeries for high-risk Hepatitis low-income patients because they are "entitled" to them. 30-40 year old men and women demanding ...never-ending "Un-Employment Checks" because they are "entitled" to them while fast-food cashier jobs go to Illegal Aliens from Mexico and Points South. Our Grammer and High Schools providing "free" meals to low-income students and in some School Districts (Mesa for one)...free breakfasts and lunch to anyone....anyone who is 18years or younger and says they are low-income. Pell Grant "$5000.00 a year" College/University student... "100% Free" give-aways if they say they are low income.
Obama and the Democrats are screaming ..."Tax the Rich and give to the Poor" well Folks...........that's just plain ............OLD-FASHIONED SOCIALISM".
If you want America to become the next Spain...the next Greece with uncontrolled "Public Sector Debt"...then...Obama is your man and the Democrats are your Party.