"Class" Warfare

Much of the rage in the rambling manifesto and videos of the deranged killer at Virginia Tech dealt with his hatred of the "rich kids" at his school. Even though he was a lunatic, it brought to the surface the continuing issue of class warfare in this country, which is fueled by much of the main stream media and liberal politicians. "Rich people are taking more than their share from society, and leaving the poor behind".

This sentiment is echoed around the world as "America haters" continue to spew their anti US rhetoric. We are looked at as a society that cares about nothing but earning money. Ironically many of these same haters would come to live in the USA without hesitation.

This class warfare attitude is fueled by the Enron, and World Com scandals, CEO's that receive huge salaries, and CEO 's who are fired for poor performance, yet get multimillion dollar severance packages. These are the stories the media concentrates on, and of course reinforces the "hate the rich" sentiment and continues the class war.

We are retired and live on a 20 acre ranch in a beautiful part of California, and are financially comfortable...to some people we would be considered "rich"

But very few people know my background - growing up in the projects of Buffalo NY, graduating from high school and moving to California on my own. With no option of being "sent"to college, I went through engineering school while working full time and raising a family. Even though I became successful in the corporate world, like many young men I had the urge to start my own company. So I put everything on the line (including my only pension fund) to go off on my own. The rest is history, after years of 60 hour work weeks the company was successful, we sold it, and retired comfortably. But my story is not unique - I have many friends that also started with nothing, worked long hours building their own companies, and are now considered "rich".

But you never read about these stories, there is nothing sensational about them. The NY Times, and much of the mainstream media publish the stories of the Enrons, and CEO's that take unfair compensation, or cheat their employees. And the liberal politicians continue to tell us how the poor are being mistreated and left behind. So the class war continues.

Yes, there are inequities in many parts of this country, and many people are paid more money than they are worth (how about athletes, entertainers, rap stars...why don't we read about their unreasonable compensation?). Maybe instead of a "class war" we should celebrate all the thousands of men and women entrepreneurs who quietly go about building their wealth by hard work and creativity, in one of the few countries in the world that offers any person who is willing to work hard, the chance to become "rich".