The Behaviors of Success Part II

It never fails to amaze me the extremes that the Anti-American lobby adopts in order to disassociate "results" from "behavior". As the private US aid donations soar past anything that any other nation can afford to give, the inevitable snide comment is that "Only a greedy capitalist can afford to give so much. If they weren't exploiting the poor, devastating the planet and gobbling up an unfair share of resources, they wouldn't be able to do do so much for those poor dying people."
Well duh! No kidding, there's a reason we have things like aircraft carriers with 6 inch thick deck plates that run on nuclear power. We build them. And I'll tell you something else, it's hard !#%& work.
Picture this: A lonely African Blacksmith stands bent over a hot fire shaping bar stock into horseshoes. Every horseshoe he makes and fits costs him 50 cents in materials but earns him 4 dollars. He is taking raw materials that he buys (investment) and by combining it with time and skill (more investment), turns the power of his mind and muscle into an economic gain. We'll call that gain "value". He has added new value out of nothing but his life energy which is fueled by food and oxygen.
In Amerika, we consider this man to be entitled to the vast majority of the value he creates. Some of it must be collected to protect the sanctity of his contract. It assures someone will stand to account before the law if he is not paid for his work. Some value is used to provide a police force that will protect him from bandits, burglars and criminals that would wish to steal the value he creates and perhaps endanger his life or liberty.
In Amerika, we take this model seriously. And we apply it on an exponentially larger scale. Think of thousands of engineers, steelworkers, electricians, plumbers and so on working on such a vast project that started out as an idea. Each of them is creating value and being paid for it. The idea man, the engineer, steelworker, electrician, and plumber gets paid for the value they create. A 1000 foot ship that has 5000 people living on it, that carries supersonic jets.
We buy the natural resources we use. We buy them through open markets. That includes the oil that is under the Arabs we are supposed to be oppressing. Anyone in the world that wants to participate in this practice of turning life energy into value may do so. The Japanese jumped on the wagon early. The Indonesians and Malaysians have been learning how to do this. The Chinese are absorbed in figuring out how to do this. One of the reasons that oil prices are high, is that the Chinese are showing a huge apetite for oil and the productivity that it enables..
This model works and it works everywhere it's tried. From one man mixing up the first batch of "Hawaiian Tropic Suntan Lotion" in a bathtub, to Bazzilionaire Steve Jobs creating Pixar. This is the great Amerikan expiriment. That neither king, nor country has the right to the value produced with your life energy, except for what is needed to protect your rights to that same value. That feudalism stuff is obsolete. Whether you succeed or fail is up to the quality of your ideas and effort.
If you have life energy, you can do this. But don't blame us if you've instituted a corrupt, anachronistic, medieval culture that prevents you from keeping the value you create. This isn't rocket science, but we can''t do it for you.
And if it feels hard, remember that it can't be that hard. After all, it was invented 230 years ago by a bunch of religious, right wing, racist, homophobe, oppressive white guys. There wasn't a single one of them with a degree in Gay or Feminist Studies. How in the world did they ever figure it out?

They can't have been that smart!