THE CONSERVATIVE VIEW
BY RUSSELL TURNER
DEFERRED GRATIFICATION
I feel that the biggest mistake that we are making today is the failure to teach the younger generations the virtue of saving a portion of what we earn. I feel very fortunate that my parents and grandparents taught me the art of saving money. Throughout my life I have often been called a tightwad or skinflint, but I wear those characterizations with pride. Leaning to live within your means is a learned trait. It may entail driving a used car even though it would be nice to be behind the wheel of a bright shiny new one, or it might be eating a bowel of beans instead of a juicy T-bone steak. In the end you were able to get from point A to point B and have enough nourishment to keep you body going. Several years ago there was a study where small children were given marshmallows. At first each child was given one and was told if they would not eat it for a certain period of time they would receive another one, but if they eat the marshmallow before the time had elapsed they would not be given another marshmallow. Some children were able to resist the temptation and not eat the first one, while the others gobbled their marshmallow down. It was interesting to take a look at the same children after they grew up; the ones who resisted the temptation were much better at saving their money and conducting business as adults.
Deferred gratification goes hand in hand with free market capitalism. I recently read an article about the millennial generation (aged 21 to 32 years); according to the article, 66% of the millennials have nothing saved for retirement. While some attribute the cause to be student loans, stagnant wages or unemployment, the end result is many don't see a future in our economic system. From what I have witnessed, too many of our young people have been indoctrinated by liberals who want to blame capitalism for all of our problems; there are people who have bought into the concept of socialism and collectivism. They fail to understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch; it takes so much work to make our system function.
When our country was colonized our ancestors experimented with collectivism, that experiment nearly caused our founders to starve to death. What kills capitalism is the elimination of capitalism. In order to create wealth, there needs to be capital. The redistribution of wealth disincentivizes people from putting the time and effort into creating wealth. During the 2016 campaign Bernie Sanders was advocating all kinds of free stuff right now. Margret Thatcher summarized socialism in the best terms I have ever heard. She said, "Socialism works well until you spend everyone else's money".
The people who promote socialism do not seem to understand that some people are lazy and refuse to work, in their twisted philosophy they think the lazy ones are entitled to the same things as the more industrious people. Free market capitalism is the best economic system known to man, if we as a nation continue to neglect the teaching of deferred gratification our days as a great nation are over.
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