CHICAGO, August 27, 2011—Steve Jobs is leaving the stage.
Jobs is a throwback to men like Edison, Bell, Kellog, Rockefeller, Watson, Ford, Maytag, Vanderbilt, Armour, Morgan, Carnegie and many others. The people who made America great. Men who created the middle class. Men who gave millions of people opportunities to rise above where they started and prosper.
They had only to be willing to work.
Like earlier builders, Steve Jobs was an exacting and demanding boss. He is described as “impatient” and “nasty.” So? If respecting tender sensitivities were part of the American business plan, America would be the most backward nation in the world. Excellence isn’t built on “I’m okay, you’re okay.” Excellence is demanding.
Steve Jobs demanded and got excellence from his employees.
A futurist and a visionary, Jobs gave us products we did not know we needed or wanted until we bought them. If we didn’t want Apple’s smart-phones or tablets, we bought another firm’s products, built in response to Jobs’ vision. Then we realized we could not live without them. He created one of the largest and wealthiest corporations in the world, created tens of thousands of jobs, and created value and wealth for anyone, employee or fund manager, who invested in Apple.
During the early 20th century, people like Steve Jobs - industrialists, manufacturers, financiers and innovators - were derisively called “robber barons” by the “progressives” and populist propagandists of the time. They were despised and dehumanized as the looters of national wealth, not its creators.
And they were the people who made modern America great. They created the middle class.
As the century progressed, industrial leaders were condemned for how they ran their businesses and how they earned their profits, profit itself considered obscene by much of the left. During both World Wars, they were called war profiteers if they dared make profits. If they went bankrupt, that was just tough luck. American industry was the “engine of democracy,” but the engineers earned no respect from the left.
Today, this class warfare continues. Unfortunately it comes from the White House, too. We have a president who seems to hate people who take advantage of opportunities to create value and wealth, except for those, like Warren Buffet, who use their wealth to join his crusade against others who create it.
This president despises the very people who make America exceptional, the entrepreneurs, the industrialists, and the financial industry that stakes them. In an economy that desperately needs jobs, he does what he can to make life hard for the people who create them.
He does not believe they deserve compensation commensurate with their risk.
The new national political past time is demonizing those who make and deliver our daily bread. The enemies of markets argue that the government is responsible for creating jobs, wealth, and prosperity; the government made America great; the government created the middle class. That is a lie.
We should remember that, in the process of making profits by satisfying our needs and desires, entrepreneurs and financiers create wealth and financial opportunities for millions of people. They create the jobs. Politicians create hot air.
If our culture manages not to succumb to left-progressive propaganda, new generations of people like Steve Jobs will continue to create, innovate, and make vast amounts of money for themselves and others in the process. America allows people to discover and seize opportunities. All they need is vision, a hard work ethic, and determination so fierce that “can’t” is a nonsense word.
In this July 16, 2010 photo shows Apple’s Tim Cook, left, and Steve Jobs, right, during a meeting at Apple in Cupertino, Calif. Cook takes over as CEO for Apple after Jobs resigned. (Image: Associated Press)
From its inception, people like these took huge risks to build our country into what it is. The whole world was better off for it. Thanks to the progressive propagandists, and this president, the era of great Americans may be over.
It is time to change our philosophy. We must reject the message notion that business, wealth and profits are evil. We should venerate the great Americans who make this country what it is, the men and women who really create and recreate America on a daily basis.
We should celebrate Capitalist Day.
We need a holiday to honor those who made America what it is, to venerate those who make it possible for people to labor, raise their families, create their own prosperity and wealth as they define it.
We should have a holiday honoring the great entrepreneurs, visionaries, inventors, and innovators of America.
And we wish Tim Cook, who is stepping into Steve Jobs’ considerable shoes, our very, very best.
Peter Bella is a retired Chicago Police Officer, freelance writer, freelance photographer, and consultant. He is a passionate cook and eater. He likes to be the sharp stick that pokes, annoys, and provokes. His opinions are his and his alone.
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