December 15, 2008

A Tale of Two Spouses

By Matt Spivey

I am going to tell you the brief story of an average American couple who believe in the vitality of the American worker and the validity of American principles. They use their Midwestern values of always being a hard working, never complaining, self-sufficient duo. And they automatically give 10% to church and charity every month, regardless of whether that month was prosperous or meager. They are true economic teammates.

But this is where their economic situations divert.

The husband was a cum laude college graduate and honoree of distinction in graduate school with a near perfect transcript. The wife graduated college with a B- average.

He immediately joined the field of study and has built up years of experience. She works in a field completely unrelated to previous college study and has many colleagues that have never stepped foot on a college campus.

He works in a business built on government budgets, union legislation, and leftist ideologies. She works in a business built on diligent effort, people skills, and savvy intelligence.

He endures in an environment of committees, hierarchies, trainings, and tenures. She enjoys an atmosphere of individualism and equal opportunities without quotas.

He works in a place where only 30% of the employees are full-time, and where the other 70% of the workload is doled out to uncommitted and transient part-timers. She works in a place where all people can join and succeed at any rate and to any level they choose.

If he is successful, a system of bloated salaries and fancy titles awaits. If she succeeds, a system of higher taxation awaits.

His colleagues are nearly all Democrats. Hers are primarily Republicans.

He is a college instructor in one of the nation's largest higher education systems. She is a real estate broker in one of the nation's most turbulent markets.

He will be lucky to clear $15,000 after taxes this year. She will earn six figures in 2008 without even breaking a sweat.

While some people long for government assistance in the present and protection for the future, the most successful Americans have always carried the spirit of determined dedication, adamant autonomy, and creative initiative. This nation was built upon the ideals of individuals, not on the complaints of the masses.

Government-run models are inefficient, expensive, and unproductive. This could not be truer than in the public education system where I currently earn my paltry salary. Entrepreneurship models, history has shown, are leaner, cheaper, faster, friendlier, and infinitely more prosperous. This could not be truer than in the dozen deals my wife closes every month. If one wants the true difference between Democratic and Republican business models, my house is the place to start.

And though I'm happy to work in an industry that I did not choose for the money, I'm even happier to have a spouse that did.