Like any parent, I want the best for my kids. I want them to be happy, strong, brave, passionate, successful, curious, ambitious, competitive, thoughtful, kind, hard working, and about a million other things.
So I ask myself, what’s the best way to raise them in order to equip them with these qualities? Clearly I need to provide for them, give them food, shelter, and an education until they can provide for themselves. But for how long?
I don’t know the perfect answer to that question, but I know what I won’t be doing is raising my kids to think that no matter what happens, I’ll always be around to make sure they’re taken care of, or that I’ll always be there with a hand out in case they need it.
I know that may sound counter-intuitive, but hear me out. Sure I want my kids to grow up strong and fearless, but I don’t want them to take stupid risks or gambles because they think their daddy will always be there to save them in the end. Because the truth is I won’t always be around, and leading them to believe so would be doing them a disservice.
I want my kids to understand their lives are ultimately in their hands, not mine. I want them to know that while I can set them up for success, it’s up to them not to squander the opportunities that come their way. For this to happen, they must face the consequences of their actions and learn from their mistakes. Because if they grow up believing there are no consequences, that someone will always be there to step in and save them from their bad decisions, what will motivate them to do the hard work necessary to achieve anything worthwhile? Instead they will risk becoming reliant on the hand that feeds them, or making one poor decision after another trying to get rich quick without putting in the work because of the way the game is rigged.
Now imagine a world full of people who have been raised to think the government will always be there to save them no matter what happens. What will that do to society? Do you think this will lead to more prosperity in the world, or less? This isn’t even considering the fact that in order for people to be able to live on handouts, there needs to be someone providing those handouts. Who will be the producers of society if everyone’s incentivized to sit on their couch and stare at a screen all day?
This is why I think socialists are terribly misguided. I can get behind wanting to help the less fortunate, wanting a system that is better than the one we have now, but perpetuating this idea that we should have a world where everyone is magically taken care of at no cost to them is not only absurd but downright evil.
I say evil because I think of it in terms of my children again. Imagine raising them to believe that no matter what happens, they will be taken care of, that they will never have to worry because the rest of society will provide for their needs, and their children’s needs, and the children of their children as well. If I did that, I would have raised them not to succeed but to fail. I will have raised them to believe in a lie. I will have led them to believe they are helpless, that they can’t achieve the unimaginable through sheer determination and hard work, and that they don’t need to work hard at anything because everything they ever need will just be given to them.
Now imagine an entire population raised to think this way. That’s not the kind of world I want to live in.
I want a world where people are taught to own their decisions and to take pride in their achievements. A world where getting lucky isn’t anything to be proud of but working hard is.
Yes my kids might fail, or ultimately come up short, but so be it. Because I believe that by removing the possibility of failure, you all but guarantee it.
I want to live in a world where people aren’t just free to make their own choices, but responsible for those choices as well. Where people are expected to carry their own weight and contribute to the rest of society while holding themselves and those around them accountable.
Not everyone is meant to be a billionaire. Just because your dreams didn’t come true, and you aren’t a superstar, doesn’t mean you just give up and become a burden to everyone else.
The left is all about diversity. The thing is, I agree with them. I think diversity is the spice of life. But I’m not talking about diversity in the same way they are. I mean the diversity of experiences. I believe the world needs to be a place where people can fail and fall down and reach rock bottom. As someone who has failed many times in life, I can tell you that there is no motivator greater than failure. But remove that part of the equation and hardly anyone will be left to produce and provide for the masses who were taught to believe they don’t need to work.
This is why I will be raising my kids to learn that they need to do the work, and if they don’t like their situation, they just need to work harder.
(Speaking of work, someone went ahead and put in some work to try and solve the puzzle in my last article. They pointed out there were 8 different words–4 pairs of words–that have BIP39 homonyms. In order to help you narrow down the possible answers, I will be releasing additional clues for each of the words hidden in upcoming articles so please stay tuned.)