Sunday Reflection: Will and Determination

The Left believes that the state assures social and economic mobility, in which they define as an egalitarian society. Since the state is the "so-called" guarantor of egalitarianism, justice eludes any other socio-economic model. They insist that without the help of the government, people just cannot make it in this country and many are forever doomed to a life of poverty and despair.

If you didn't get the opportunity to see ABC's 20/20 Friday evening, here is where you can watch a report that debunks this myth, advanced by those on the Left. I found the entire show noteworthy for many reasons, the one I would like to highlight can be found in Part Six, entitled America: Still The Land Of Opportunity. If you want to read about it, you can read Stossel's blog entry, which also includes a video witht some startling information.

Briefly, the part I want to point out is the profile of two books and the two stories behind the books. This is something liberals will not be able to refute, but they'll try anyway. It discusses the myth of the middle class erosion.

From Stossel's blog entry:

Social commentator and best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich agrees. "It used to be that you could expect to get a job after college, rise in that job, maybe switch jobs at some point and then retire with a generous pension," she said. "Now, it's a very bumpy road with many gaps in between."

In her book "Nickel and Dimed," Ehrenreich went undercover to work as a nursing home aide, a Wal-Mart associate and took on other low-wage jobs to see if she could make ends meet.

She said she struggled to pay her bills and live comfortably. If you are poor, she said, and you want to move up the income ladder, in her experience, America doesn't "offer as much upward mobility as we think it does. That's a myth."

But is she right? Can only the rich make it in America? Not everyone agrees.

"I wanted to discover for myself if the 'American Dream' is still alive," said Adam Shepard, author of "Scratch Beginnings," a book he wrote after reading Ehrenreich's book in college.

Shepard, now 26, picked a city out of a hat -- Charleston, S.C. He went there with $25 in his pocket. How far could he get if he didn't tell anyone about his college degree?

"I arrived, and right away I figured I needed to get into a homeless shelter," Shepard said.

He lived in a shelter for two months. Then he got a job with a moving company, making $8 an hour. Soon he'd saved enough to buy a used truck. And within a few months he had an apartment. After one year, he had $5,500 and a car. How?

"I was able to do it because I made sacrifices," Shepard said.

Despite Ehrenreich's claim that income mobility is a myth, Shepard succeeded from humble beginnings.

There's more the learn from this particular segment. America: Still A Land Of Opportunity is worth your time because it demonstrates that anyone with a dream, properly motivated, and refuses to quit, can achieve success with little or no government assistance. I have a friend who is fond of saying that life provides two choices: chicken salad, or chicken crap. The video shows how a young person was able to demonstrate how flawed an older woman’s thinking is; it was very inspirational.

Much of human behavior is learned. People who are conditioned to believe they cannot succeed outside of extraordinary circumstances, generally will not succeed. It is a cruel joke played on young people by their parents, by our socialist education system, and often, by the people with whom we choose to associate. Evidently, this young man in the video went against that grain and resisted the lure to underachieve, because the mainstream educational experts said he would.

In all of this, let's not fail to consider the amazing transformation among people who complete military training. They become positive thinkers, planners, and develop amazing self-confidence. They, more than any other segment of our society, understand that we cannot help the circumstances of our birth. But we have much to say about what we actually accomplish in our lives.

Go ahead . . . watch this. And unless you are one of those people who love to be miserable, you’ll be encouraged at what you see. I recommend watching the entire report. But if time is limited, make sure you watch the entire Part Six. I think you'll be very surprised at what you see.