Thursday, January 28, 2010

Who creates jobs: ObaMa or Jobs?

In an obvious reflection of my immense power in political circles, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal said today what I said yesterday on the contrast of ObaMa and Steve Jobs. Here's my letter to the editor (below) on his nice column.

_______________________________
It was interesting and poignant to read Rich Karlgaard’s column juxtaposing Barack Obama with Steve Jobs. I had done the same thing in a blog post the morning of the planned addresses by Mr. Obama and Mr. Jobs when the stark reality of their differences and proximity of speeches became clear. These two men provide sublime Shakespearean contrasts for Americans.

On the one hand, you have a man who spent his youthful adulthood and the rest of his adult life creating and inventing things of wonderment that millions of Americans, including myself, have happily forked over hundreds or thousands of dollars for. He never attempted to force others to pay for his endeavors, and he freely competed with minds of genius in his own field. He sponsored and worked with other ingenious minds in the happy attempt to push the boundaries of the natural world. He does not attempt to curry favor for himself. He creates a complex thing and then says, “This is what I and my cohorts have made. We hope you like it. If you don’t, we’ll go back to the drawing board. Thank you.”

On the other hand, you have a man who spent his youthful adulthood and the rest of his adult life attempting to manipulate human beings and laws to curry favor for himself and those he deemed worthy of the loot he helped coerce from other Americans. His interest in the natural world extended only insofar as he could force others to pay for his interest. The minds he openly and secretly sought were those preaching racism, victimhood, political pull and the power of the purse. He creates nothing and then says, “This is what I have done. You will like it. If you don’t, then too bad. It is for your own good, and you are too stupid to realize it. When I go back to the drawing board, you will get more of it. Goodbye.”

These two life philosophies were poignantly on display in the presentations. The creative man sat comfortably and easily in his chair proudly showing the world his company’s brilliant new invention that he was offering at unbelievably low prices, considering the hundreds of millions of dollars in research and manpower it must’ve taken to invent it.

The other man stood tensely, sullenly with head tilted back, condescendingly telling Americans that he will continue to push his ideas upon them even though they adamantly say they don’t want those ideas. He blamed others, implicitly and explicitly. He wielded his tax baton at men and women like Mr. Jobs and comically suggested that he, himself, can help create more men and women like Mr. Jobs from his position of coercive power. (It is another interesting irony of reality and names that Mr. Jobs is the one who creates jobs.)

Mr. Karlgaard is right that that “entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs make everything better.” Indeed, and politicians like Barack Obama don’t.

2 comments:

Jeffrey Perren said...

Very well said.

Dave said...

Thanks, Jeff. Hope you're well. Still got a lot of irons in the fire?