Life Has Always Been Hard—So Go Get Yours

 Every generation seems to believe they have it harder than the one before it.  Yet today there is a onslaught of crybabies saying that today’s hardships are somehow unique.

Here’s a reality check: times have always been tough for someone. Why should your generation be the first to expect life to be easy?  

Many young people have been taught that life should be fair, that success should come naturally, and that if they don’t have what they want, someone else is to blame. But that’s not how life has ever worked.

Let’s look at history.

Someone in every generation has had it tough. Let’s look at just a few.  

What about an 18-year-old in 1940 that survived the great depression with their parents. Do you think they had it tough? Yes, but they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and went out, did what they had to do, and got theirs.

Imagine being 16 years old in rural Oklahoma in 1936. Your family survives the Great Depression, only to be hit by the Dust Bowl at the same time. Your family’s farm no longer produces crops. You pack everything you can into a vehicle, leave your home behind, and head somewhere unknown with no guarantee of work or a better future.  Then it’s 1940. The Depression and the Dust Bowl are finally ending, but jobs are scarce and the future is uncertain. What do you do? You don’t demand that someone else fix your life. You do whatever work you can find. You rebuild. You persevere. You pull yourself up by your bootstraps and go get yours.

Every generation has faced enormous challenges.  This one is no different. 

So why are so many people today convinced that socialism is the answer? Because of our indoctrination centers, otherwise know as the public school system and college professors indoctrinating our youth to believe capitalism is bad, socialism is good.

Yet history tells a different story. Everywhere socialism has been tried, ordinary people have often ended up with less freedom, fewer opportunities, and lower standards of living. Yet many students are taught to see capitalism as the problem while hearing very little about the failures of socialist systems.

The message often becomes: if you’re struggling, someone else is responsible. Nothing is your fault. But personal responsibility is what has helped countless people overcome difficult circumstances.

Consider Sarah Breedlove....you haven’t heard of her?  Maybe you know her as Madam C. J. Walker.

Still don’t know her. She was born in 1867. And before she was 45 her net worth is reported to be over $1 million dollars. The equivalent to $35 million dollars today. Well, when you think back to your liberal teaching, you fall back on the usual trash talk about rich people, saying, “She was born into privilege,” or “It was white privilege.”  

Well you’d be wrong on both cases. Not only was she born poor, she was orphaned at the age of seven and she was black. She lived in Southern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi. Slavery had just ended 2 years before she was born. She married at the age of 14, became a mother at 17, and was widowed by 20 years old. Still living in the deep south.  

In 1889 at the age of 22 her and her daughter moved to St. Louis. She found work as a washerwoman, earning just $1.50 a week. Less than $220 a month in today’s money. And there was no Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps or Housing. No government assistance.

And just 21 years later, she was worth over the equivalent of 35 million dollars in today’s money. How did she do this? She pulled herself up by her boot straps and got hers.

So, tell me, what is it that makes it so bad today? 

Prices are too high; they have always been to high.

Wages are too low; wages have always been to low.  

Inflation is too high; every generation had to high of inflation. 

 The rich are getting richer, the rich have always been getting richer, but yet some of them lost everything and became poor.  

And get this, some of the poor became rich, like Madam C.J. Walker.

The American Dream has never promised an easy life. It has always promised the opportunity to build a better one.

So instead of believing that someone else owes you success, take responsibility for your future. Make wise financial decisions. Develop valuable skills. Work hard. Learn from your mistakes. Keep improving yourself.

Don’t give up on the American Dream because life is difficult. Life has always been difficult.

So, get off your butt and go get yours. Don’t choose to stay poor like so many people have by making bad life choices. Make good lifestyle choices, good financial choices and go live the American dream. Don’t try to kill it thinking socialism is the answer.