167th Edition
Visionaries and what they think about
My favorite foil in my weekly blogs has become Peggy Noonan, a person I have long followed and admired. Her recent essay in the Wall Street Journal, “Is America Still Making Ted Turners?” is the subject of today’s blog. In her article she pays tribute to the late, great Ted Turner. He sure was one of a kind. “The man was epic,” as she so aptly says.
The primary point of her article was to contrast the times in which Ted Turner lived and created with the political and economic environment of today. Ms. Noonan wonders whether today’s environment of progressivism and populism might prevent the emergence of the next Ted Turner. Who will be the next visionary, innovative thinker, a maverick not afraid to buck the trends and disregard conventional thought? Don’t we already have that person in Elon Musk? Are there others?
Of course there are. However, the best and brightest today are taking a slightly different approach. With higher taxes, oppressive regulation, the threat of a wealth tax, the progressive obsession with wealth re-distribution, and a general disregard for wealth creators, the country’s entrepreneurs understand it is much wiser to remain off the bureaucratic radar screen. As a result, many of our most successful businesses remain private entities. Many have moved to states with lower taxes and a more friendly business climate. Ms. Noonan believes there is a “rising thirst for safety” and a growing disdain for capitalism, in response to the 2008 financial crisis. I don’t think this is entirely accurate. Entrepreneurs today aren’t fearful, as much as they are distrustful of the government’s expanding role in the economy. They are still willing to embrace risk and capitalism more broadly, but they want to avoid the tentacles of the ever-growing state bureaucracy.
Ms. Noonan then recalls the famous (or infamous) line by President Obama – “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Noonan infers that what he meant was that “nobody builds alone.” I disagree. President Obama was one of the most articulate presidents in history. If he wanted to say that nobody builds alone, he would have said exactly that. But he didn’t, because that isn’t what he meant. What he meant was that in order to be successful in business you need government assistance. Instead of highlighting individual success stories, and the hard work and creativity it took to achieve them along with the sleepless nights that invariably happen in the beginning of every enterprise that starts with a dream, Obama chose to replace what could have been a historic, inspirational message, with a statement to remind us that without government we can do very little. That was his ideology and it is the progressive ideology that is so prominent today. It is toxic. Toxic for individual entrepreneurs and for the country as a whole. I don’t believe anyone who has risked all to start a business, whether they ultimately succeed or fail, ever embraces progressivism. Why? Because being in the arena, even suffering heartbreak and defeat, is better than being a mindless bureaucrat. Perhaps it is also true that progressives, once they become dependent on government largesse, rarely have the courage to venture off on their own.
Sure, people need help. They need encouragement from loyal friends, maybe a leap of faith from a personal banker, investor, or philanthropist, or from a fellow businessman who blazed a similar trail years before. The private sector is the most effective source for entrepreneurial assistance. It is adaptive and relational. The government is more often just the opposite.
Noonan raises an interesting question toward the end of her essay. She says, “Free-market capitalism can continue only if those who have won show allegiance to their fellow citizens.” Let’s dig into that. To whom do successful wealth creators owe loyalty? Certainly, to anyone who personally helped them along the way. Also, to employees and business associates. And yes, even to their community, church, and those around them who might be in need. Most successful wealth creators do these things. Civic mindedness is not dead in this country. It happens every day across our nation. Seldom does it make the news, and rarely will it be highlighted by progressives who prefer that government control and ultimately force wealth re-distribution.
It would be amazing if today’s gazillionaires would all become impeccable role models, living modestly and generously, with complete integrity in all they do. But they are all flawed, just like the rest of us. Our connection to others is neither economic nor political, nor even ideological. Our connection is through God, who calls each and every one of us to live a life of humility, to show grace, and to love others as we love ourselves. When was the last time you heard a progressive share those thoughts?
I wish Ms. Noonan had replaced Obama’s comments with those of another president.
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
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Michael Kayes
*These views are my personal opinions and are not the viewpoints of any company or organization.