A Piece of the Pie

by
Suzann Darnall

A while back, I was baking brownies and listening to Sean Hannity's radio show. A young man had called in and was talking about the Occupy Wall Street protest. His comments were essentially that those who have lots need to give up more of their wealth to those who have less.

I guess because I was baking, I immediately thought of them slicing up that pie chart that is so often used in economics. Most people talk about it like there is just one pie and it is only so big. Like John Stossel, my favorite Libertarian Fox News journalist, I wonder, "Why not more pies?" Of course, John Stossel also wondered about selling cupcakes by affirmative action standards. Orientals and whites pay more than Hispanics and blacks, just to make it all "fair" … by political correctness idiocy anyway! But, I digress. Probably sidetracked by the thought of all that yummy icing!

Back on track! I just don't think you take someone else's pie. You bake your own! And, you aren't limited to just one pie. With more work you can bake as many as you want. Or make a cake or fix some brownies. In a free market capitalist society, the choice is yours. You can even share your pie with others ... if you choose to do so. But, no one should be forced to give their pie away.

I am reminded of the story about the Little Red Hen. She found some grains of wheat and decided to bake some bread. She asked some of her barnyard neighbors to help with the various chores involved in going from wheat to bread, but none of them wanted to help her work. However, once the bread was baked, they all wanted to help her eat it. But, she chose not to share, except with her children, who had helped her do all the work. Which probably means that story is now banned in schools, 'cause it certainly does not fit into the liberal, socialist agenda with which many of our children are being indoctrinated through education in most communities.

I do realize that there are poor among us. I do think we need to help the poor. But, I also believe we must reevaluate who is truly needy and how they can best be assisted. I also think we need to back away from so much government welfare, where fraud, waste, and abuse are rampant. We must permit private citizens and charities to handle much of it at the local level where the more personal involvement allows better control of determining who has true need.

My husband and I are not wealthy, but we do have enough to share some of it with those less blessed. We do so willingly. We are not so willing about paying the excessive taxes that go to support so much of government's wasteful programs.

Oh, we pay our taxes. Every last dollar! We have no choice. We are not politically connected nor are we enormously wealthy. We are smack dab in the middle of the middle class, where government seemingly has the least compassion and the tax code has the least loopholes available.

I realize we need to share some of our pie with the government. I am willing to do so. For programs that are important. I want government to protect me. At the national level, with a strong military and solid international relationships, not from imagined perils. At the state and local level, I want adequate law enforcement and public safety, not social justice. What I do not want is a "Nanny State" at any level. Because I do not need the government to tell me how to live or take care of me. Besides, I know the government never gives anything away that they didn't take away from me or someone else.

So, let's find out who amongst our GOP candidates is most likely to know how to help each of us learn to bake our own pies, as well as who amongst them is most likely to keep the government's money-grubbing thumbs from pulling out all our pies' plums! I think we have got some good options. Businessmen, job creators, fiscal conservatives, and even libertarians all strike me as being better suited for baking pies, rather than stealing pies … unlike a certain community organizer who keeps wanting to take government's very large "fair share" right off the top of each and every pie we have all worked so hard to make.

© Suzann C. Darnall, NOVEMBER 2011