Human motivation is key to unlocking American Dream

Here it comes. The United States is poised to undertake the largest expansion of government in recent history. If Barack Obama is elected president on November 4, as current polling suggests, he will come into office with something few presidents get and all envy: both houses of Congress controlled by his own party. With Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the helm in the House, and Majority Leader Harry Reid presiding over what may be a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the trio of Obama, Pelosi and Reid will be unstoppable. As Obama now famously told Joe the Plumber, government will get down to the business of spreading around the wealth. Big new entitlements and government handouts will rule the day.

This doesn’t sit well with Joe the Plumber, who worries that Sen. Obama’s plan will take away some of Joe’s hard-earned money so Obama, Pelosi and Reid can spread it around. Joe is not alone. Somewhere on a mountaintop in California, Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave. In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin, whose rest has been uneasy for some time now, is positively spinning.

Ronald Reagan’s domestic legacy is a shift away from reliance on big government. “In this present crisis,” he declared in his first inaugural address, “government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem.” Reagan fought to reverse the creeping growth of big government, knowing how vastly inefficient it is. When citizens look first to government to fulfill their needs and desires, the entrepreneurial spirit is weakened and individual initiative and self-reliance – the stuff that motivates Joe the Plumber – is unrewarded.

Likewise, it’s the effect of big government on human motivation that makes Benjamin Franklin restless. If Obama, Pelosi and Reid insist on mandating individual behavior, they would do well to require that every citizen read Franklin’s “Autobiography.’’ In it, Franklin delivers the first literary rendition of the American Dream. In one of the greatest scenes in American literature, Franklin arrives at the port of Philadelphia and stands at the foot of Walnut Street, a mere teenager with nothing but some extra clothes stuffed in his pockets and a few loaves of bread. Aided only by his wits and initiative, he is about to embark on the journey of becoming….well, Benjamin Franklin, the world’s most famous American.

How does he do it? He tells us he lived according to a list of 13 virtues which he believed would lead him to success. Virtues like Frugality (“make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; waste nothing’’), Industry (“be always employed in something useful’’) and Resolution (“resolve to perform what you ought, perform without fail what you resolve’’). If the chairman of the House Banking Committee or the CEO of Fannie Mae had taken these simple virtues seriously, we might have avoided much of our current economic conundrum.

For Franklin, the root of society’s well-being lies in the virtue of individual citizens, but it does not stop there. Franklin worked throughout his life to elevate these virtues from individual habits to civic institutions. He created the first public library to give citizens equal opportunity at self-improvement. He founded an “Academy” – today we call it the University of Pennsylvania – so that young Americans might become “distinguished by their improv’d abilities, serviceable in public stations, and ornaments to their country.” He developed plans to pave roads and light streets at night for the singular purpose of allowing people to go about their good industrious labors with greater efficiency.

In the 218 years since Franklin’s death, some of what we do has become increasingly complicated – financial institutions, for instance, or big government. But make no mistake: the foundation of any society is, and always has been, the industry and diligence of individuals. Franklin tirelessly advocated for equal opportunity, but he knew the folly of promising equality of outcome. What you get out of life is ultimately up to you. That’s why Joe the Plumber gets up and goes to work every morning.

If we insist on increasing the size and scope of government involvement in our daily lives, we should take care that big government doesn’t wither away the virtues of discipline and self-reliance. We should not think ourselves so smart that we can socially engineer basic human motivations. Nobody was smarter than Benjamin Franklin, and he found the greatest value in these simple virtues.

Franklin wrote a remembrance of his parents, inscribed on their gravestone which still stands in Boston. Married for 55 years, he explains, they were born poor and worked at ordinary jobs, but “through constant labor and industry” they provided a comfortable life for their large family. “From this instance, Reader,” Franklin adds, “be encouraged to Diligence in thy calling.”

Joe the Plumber worries that the big government of Obama, Pelosi and Reid will do the opposite – it will discourage diligence and hard work. To be sure, there is a proper place for good, smart government. But Obama, Pelosi and Reid should listen carefully to the simple yet insightful messages of Joe the Plumber, Ronald Reagan and certainly Benjamin Franklin.

About the author:
Brian F. Carso Jr., Ph.D., is a political historian and an assistant professor of history and director of the pre-law program at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pa.