I guess I'm the only one not surprised...

I see that much of the Conservative Punditry is up-in-arms about a survey that shows that only 53% of Americans surveyed say Capitalism is the best economic system...

Now tell me please why everyone is so shocked by this number. "It's way too LOW!" they say. No it isn't. It's exactly the ratio we ourselves have created. Think about it for a second.

There are about a million different ways to get rich in this country, and not one of them is easy. They all take hard work and dedication. And frankly, most of the country, let's say 47% of them, simply are not up to it or aren't interested for one reason or another.

I work in one of the most competitive parts of one of the most competitive businesses in this country. I work 14 hour days, take work home on the weekends, and I haven't been to Happy Hour in 15 years. I do these things because I want to be successful and I'd also like to be rich. I'm letting an industry kick my ass every single day because I see a tremendous upside in it if I keep at it long enough.

It's what I've chosen to to... it's a trade off. And most Americans are simply not interested. A significant portion of the American public have chosen a different path, a different bargain. They work hard and they are industrious, for sure, but they go home at 5 and they don't think about work at all from Friday night to Sunday morning. They have time for family, Church maybe... Maybe they've chosen a career that doesn't pay well but that has a high degree of social value like a teacher or prosecuting attorney. These people DO go to Happy Hour, they enjoy the hell out of their weekends, and they save up enough for a beach house to retire to, and two weeks on the shore every July.

And yet the media tells them every day that they're missing out on something. Everyone on TV and in the movies is rich. In the movies, every cop drives a vintage, cherry muscle car. All the women are New York advertising execs or newspaper columnists living in gigantic mid-town apartments. On TV every single day our President and Vice President foment the worst kind of class warfare... even going so far as to suggest that the rich are "unpatriotic" because they don't willingly give up more than the 50% of their incomes they already pay in taxes.

But even as they watch these things on TV, an awful lot of our fellow countrymen know that they have made as much money as they will ever make. They are as rich as they will ever get. And the disparity between what they have, and what the media and our government has convinced them that they deserve, is wide and deep.

Beacause the Government and the media have told our fellow Americans that whatever their failings are, they are not their own fault. The world is not fair. Our Economy is not fair. They were cheated somehow. And after years and years of hearing this, they have begun to believe it. they have begun to believe that they SHOULD have everything they see on TV, and that if they don't it is because someone is to blame.

And so they are angry. They want to punish someone rich. And you know what would do that? Socialism. It may not make THEM rich... scratch that, it will absolutely NOT make them rich... but what it might do, is pull all those undeserving rich folks who probably cheated or inherited or stole their way to prosperity back down to Earth.

Socialism might doom us all to mediocrity, but it might also cure that nagging jealousy that too many Americans are, apparently, carrying around like so much luggage.

Not much of a trade-off in my opinion... but then I'm one of the 53% who voted for Capitalism, so I'm probably not the guy to ask.

UPDATE: I woke up this morning to find this article at the top of the Yahoo home page... "HOW TO FIND A LOW STRESS JOB".

Check out a few quotes from the piece.

"Hate time pressure?"

"Prefer a shot work-week?"

"Want freedom from the bottom line?"

If those are your chief concerns when considering a new career, then you need to know that you will never get rich. People get rich by putting themselves on the line, and being on the line is incredibly stressfull. But if that's not your thing, that's fine, I respect the choice, believe me, there are a lot of stressful things about my job that I hate. But remember that it is a choice YOU made, so if you wake up fifteen years down the road and think to yourself, "I wish I'd made more money". Remember that our Constitution guarantees only equality of opportunity, not of outcome... the rest is up to you. So don't suddenly start voting for people who want to "spread the wealth around" by taking away what I've made for myself because you feel some sense of regret about where your choices have brought you.

Or if you do, at least have the courage not to claim that you're voting that way out of a sense of "fairness." There is no fairness in this world, there are only choices and consequences.