PrintJuly 5, 2010
Dependency, the Liberals' Natural Resource
Decades back, when I studied geography in third grade, a nation's wealth was depicted by natural resources on maps -- little coffee cups in Brazil, diamonds in South Africa, and oil derricks in Arabia. Industrial production then replaced raw materials -- a tiny car in Detroit. And years later, the great wealth-generating natural resource was brainpower, so third-graders might see pictures of mortarboard-attired college graduates in Cambridge, MA.But a radically new wealth-generating natural resource has emerged, one especially favored by the Obama administration. This is dependency, in which recipients of government largess evolve from an unwelcome tax-eating burden to a job-creating assets. No wonder many Americans welcome troublesome immigrants. It is almost as if the 1849 Gold Rush days are here again, but instead of prospectors panning for nuggets at Sutter's Creek, entrepreneurs are packing their minivans, formulating grant proposals, sharpening resumes, and rushing to Arizona to...(Read Full Article)
