No Poor Man Ever Gave Me A Job

The Wisdom Of My Butcher Father

April 11, 2013 by Wayne Allyn Root 

Hello, I’m Wayne Allyn Root for Personal Liberty. My father, David Root, was a blue-collar butcher. But he was wise beyond his economic status in life. His wisdom of 40 years ago is still timely and points to the reasons for our economic crisis and decline today. An incident from a few days ago sums up everything wrong with the U.S. economy under Barack Obama.

Last Tuesday (April 2), voters across America went to the polls for local elections. My wife, Debra, was one of those voters. She drove to the polling place in her Cadillac Escalade — a big car that is necessary to drive our brood of four home-schooled kids (and often their friends) to lessons, hobbies and sports, as well as for lugging groceries and supplies for a family of six.

As Debra got out of the car, another pulled up and parked next to her, a small car. The driver got out, looked at her and, in an angry, mean-spirited, bitter way, commented: “What a big, expensive car. You must be here to vote Republican.” Sneering, he turned his back and walked away.

This little comment sums up everything wrong with America and the U.S. economy under Obama. This President has damaged the American dream, perhaps beyond repair. This President has created a bitterly divided society, a Nation filled with anger, hate, rage, jealousy and envy.

That man at the polling place never asked how hard my wife and I have worked for the past 22 years of marriage to afford that big car. He didn’t ask how many hours I’ve put in. He didn’t ask how much money I’ve risked to build my businesses (the answer is my entire life savings — again and again), how many jobs I’ve created or how many lives my success and wealth have enriched. It never occurred to him that the blue-collar autoworkers at Cadillac are mighty glad there are still Americans with the money to buy Escalades.

Forty years ago, my butcher father taught me lessons about wealth that led to my extraordinary success in this great country. He said: “Son, I’d love to hate rich people. But no one poor has ever given me a job.” Wiser words were never spoken.

Not only had a rich man given my dad his first job, but a rich man had invested the money for my dad to open his own butcher store. And it was rich customers who walked in the store to buy all his high-quality meat. It was rich customers who supported our family and paid our bills. It was all those rich customers who enabled my father to buy a home. And, he pointed out, it was those same rich customers who would someday write a letter of recommendation when his son applied for acceptance at Columbia University.

My dad was right about all of it. We lived the American dream. My dad went from minimum wage butcher to butcher store owner. I graduated valedictorian of my class, got those letters of recommendation from rich customers of my dad’s and graduated from Columbia University, class of ’83 (alongside my classmate, Obama).

As a kid holding my dad’s hand when an expensive car drove by, he made a point to say: “Son, that will be you someday.” Every step of the way my butcher father taught me that people earn their wealth, deserve their success. He told me to be inspired by seeing wealthy people, their big homes and their big cars. To study them, model them and out-work them. And, if I did all that, then one day I could become one of them — in America, the greatest country in the world. He was right.

Today, that same blue-collar father says to his son: “Look at that expensive car. Why does he deserve that? Who did he take advantage of to get it? I’ll bet he’s a greedy Republican not paying his ‘fair share.’”

That change in attitude explains why the U.S. economy is in decline and why the jobs numbers continue to unravel. It explains why 90 million working-age Americans are out of the workforce. It explains why things are getting worse, not better. Capitalism is what made America great. You can only create more jobs by creating more opportunity, by supporting entrepreneurship, by creating more rich people — not by tearing them down, overwhelming them with taxes and regulations or asking government to redistribute their money. Obama’s philosophy is a massive failure and a great, big jobs killer. The facts are in.

Thank you, Dad, for your wisdom.

I’m Wayne Allyn Root for PersonalLiberty.com. See you next week right back here. God bless capitalism, and God bless America.