"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose--because it contains all the others--the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.' No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity--to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created." - Ayn Rand

There has been a lot of snickering lately about the medical community and how, now with the government grab of their noble profession they will no longer be able to make a lot of money. What? Have we forgotten the years and years of medical school doctors attend, the years of excruciating work that they do to acquire their skills, the personal devotion to their careers and their commitment to saving our lives? And they don't have a right to make money for that? Where is the outrage in their defense?

I've heard this same yak-yak about money my entire life. People prattle that corporations (who are simply a group of individuals, by the way) shouldn't be making so much money. Really? Where does money to invest in growth come from? Where does the money that supports retirement income come from? Where do jobs come from? Since when did making money become a crime? And just exactly who defines what too much money consists of?

I find it interesting that these same gossips who clatter their teeth together over "outrageous profits" are the same ones who push for the government to steal more and more of our money through taxes to fling at this entitlement or that entitlement. It has become okay for everyone else to have money except for the ones who have worked hard to produce it. The looters, who proclaim to care so much for their fellow man as they rob Americans, hide their true motives-power over others, acquisition of money (no matter how they get it) or the destruction of the good simply for being good .

Shame on you who clamor to rob and control your fellow Americans! You have abandoned the principles for which this country was founded, the right to pursue one's own happiness and to be able to keep the fruits of one's labor. If this country falls into the clutches of totalitarianism , don't complain. You asked for it and you will deserve it.

Charlotte Cushman is a Montessori educator at Minnesota Renaissance School, Anoka, Minnesota. She has been involved in the study of philosophy since 1970.