The Risk Taker vs. the Profit Taker

Robert L. RosebrockOP-ED

• It’s the American entrepreneur, not the government, who takes the risk to build a new business to benefit America’s citizenry and enhance our economy.

• It’s the American entrepreneur, not the government, who invests and gambles everything he or she has so that fellow citizens may benefit either as a customer who needs the product or service, or as an employee who needs a job.

• It’s the American entrepreneur, not the government, who creates an extensive job market with expansive distribution and inter-linking services for more Americans to participate, prosper and further invigorate our national economy.

• It’s the American entrepreneur who must tolerate and submit to intrusive and oppressive federal, state and local governments that overregulate, over-inspect, over-tax, and under-appreciate their sacrifices to our country and fellow citizens.

• It’s the American entrepreneur, not the government, who generates a revenue base that provides a steady stream of taxations to build a strong national defense and the necessary public services and facilities for our citizenry.

• It’s the American entrepreneur, not the government, who bears the burden of loss when a business fails.

• It’s the government, not the American entrepreneur, who takes the first cut of the profit when a business succeeds.

• Why would anyone risk so much unless he or she truly loves America, the land of opportunity, with liberty and justice for all? Show your support for America’s risk-taking entrepreneurs by buying American-made products and vote for those who support free-market enterprise, not a socialistic welfare state.

Let us not forget the greatest risk-takers of all, the men and women of our U.S. Military. They pledge their lives to defend this great American lifestyle.

Thoughts of a Giant

“We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success —only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free.

“Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.” — Ronald Reagan

Another Tall Thinker

“Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat it can blame for the nation's troubles and use as a justification of its own demands for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen.

“Businessmen are the symbol of a free society — the symbol of America. If and when they perish, civilization will perish. But if you wish to fight for freedom, you must begin by fighting for its unrewarded, unrecognized, unacknowledged, yet best representatives — the American businessmen.

Ayn Rand (1905 –1982)

Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at RRosebrock1@aol.com