{"id":12048,"date":"2010-05-23T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T18:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=12048"},"modified":"2010-06-26T07:44:08","modified_gmt":"2010-06-26T14:44:08","slug":"the-greatest-risk-of-resurrgent-statism-is-that-we-will-forsake-the-unalienable-right-to-the-pursuit-of-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12048\/the-greatest-risk-of-resurrgent-statism-is-that-we-will-forsake-the-unalienable-right-to-the-pursuit-of-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"The greatest risk of resurrgent statism is that we will forsake the unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arthur C. Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute in The Washington Post:<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The new statism in America, made possible by years of drift and accelerated by the panic over the economic crisis, threatens to make us permanently poorer. But that is not the greatest danger. The real risk is that in the new culture war, we will forsake the third unalienable right set out in our Declaration of Independence: the pursuit of happiness.<\/p>\n

Free enterprise brings happiness; redistribution does not. The reason is that only free enterprise brings earned success.<\/p>\n

Earned success involves the ability to create value honestly — not by inheriting a fortune, not by picking up a welfare check. It doesn’t mean making money in and of itself. Earned success is the creation of value in our lives or in the lives of others. Earned success is the stuff of entrepreneurs who seek value through innovation, hard work and passion. Earned success is what parents feel when their children do wonderful things, what social innovators feel when they change lives, what artists feel when they create something of beauty.<\/p>\n

Money is not the same as earned success but is rather a symbol, important not for what it can buy but for what it says about how people are contributing and what kind of difference they are making. Money corresponds to happiness only through earned success.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, unearned money — while it may help alleviate suffering — carries with it no personal satisfaction. Studies of lottery winners, for instance, show that after a brief period of increased happiness, their moods darken as they no longer derive the same enjoyment from the simple pleasures in life, and as the glow of buying things wears off.<\/p>\n

The same results emerge with other kinds of unearned income — welfare payments, for example. According to the University of Michigan’s 2001 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, going on the welfare rolls increases by 16 percent the likelihood of a person saying that she or he has felt inconsolably sad over the past month. Of course, the misery of welfare recipients probably goes well beyond the check itself. Nonetheless, studies Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arthur C. Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute in The Washington Post: The new statism in America, made possible by years of drift and accelerated by the panic over the economic crisis, threatens to make us permanently poorer. But that is not the greatest danger. The real risk is that in the new culture war, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,24,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-egoism-in-action","8":"category-flourishing","9":"category-group-therapy","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3003,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3003\/i-love-freedom-too-much-to-be-silent\/","url_meta":{"origin":12048,"position":0},"title":"I love freedom too much to be silent","author":"Mike Farmer","date":"April 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I had some time today to write a few words. I'm waiting on a response -- I spend half my life waiting on responses. Some people are prompt responders, some are slow, some are\u00a0UNresponsive. I was talking with\u00a0the\u00a0head relocation person for Gulfstream Aerospace this morning and she was telling me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12535,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12535\/declaration-of-independence\/","url_meta":{"origin":12048,"position":1},"title":"Declaration of Independence","author":"Tom Johnson","date":"July 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Declaration of Independence [Adopted in Congress 4 July 1776] The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":489,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/489\/want-to-know-where-real-estate-corruption-comes-from-whatever-you-do-dont-look-in-the-newspaper\/","url_meta":{"origin":12048,"position":2},"title":"Want to know where real estate corruption comes from? 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First, more fake good news downtown: \"Phoenix is putting in place the final building block in its plan to construct\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11645,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11645\/historian-robert-higgs-citizen-be-careful-what-you-wish-for-the-government-just-might-give-it-to-you-good-and-hard\/","url_meta":{"origin":12048,"position":3},"title":"Historian Robert Higgs: “Citizen, be careful what you wish for; the government just might give it to you good and hard.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Nothing Outside the State by Robert Higgs A popular slogan of the Italian Fascists under Mussolini was, \u201cTutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato\u201d (everything for the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state). 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