Ask Not

So all the left of center wackadoos are so excited about the 50th anniversary of their Lord and Master, bestest President evah's, inaugural speech.  That's today, in case you don't listen to NPR.

"Ask NOT, what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

A call to service.  The Peace Corps!  Work a campaign for a progressive politician!  BECOME a progressive politician!  Volunteer at a soup kitchen!  A gummint job!  A non-profit!  Oh boy.

They concentrate on "what you can do for your country."  They assume that being an entrepreneur doesn't count.  That's selling out to the Man!  Or being a wage slave if you don't actually employ someone.  But they forget the value in adding to the country's GDP.  Trading value for value and both parties get more in return than what they give.  Be they an oil tycoon, the owner of a computer hardware manufacturer, a computer programmer, a plumber, a waitress, a bank clerk, a sales clerk, a janitor.  They assume they must eschew the miracle of capitalism because it's... icky capitalism.

But that's not the overlooked factor of the line in the speech I am concerned with.  This part is ignored even more.  "Ask NOT what your country can do for you."  Ask not what your country can do for you.  Period.  Full stop.  It's not "please Father Kennedy and all your successors, take care of me from cradle to grave.  Gimme free health care, free education from Head Start thru college and post grad, comfortable retirement I didn't earn, free childcare, free, Free, FREE.  Gimme gimme gimme."  No.  The cost is too high.  In monetary terms, and the regulatory squeezing necessary to achieve it that ends up throttling liberty.  Ask NOT what your country can do for you.  It's a command.  Stop asking.  Listen to Kennedy.  It's the part you pretend not to hear, liberal Democrats and many Republicans, but hear it you must.   Just stop.  Why?  It isn't free.  Your country doesn't just owe you something.  You get a lot for the happenstance of being born here, with relative freedom, you aren't due extra at the expense of the principles that brought you such good fortune.  It's holding us all back, this attitude with some.  Even if you are a net recipient of the 'free' stuff, it holds you back.  Ask not.  It's the smartest thing JFK said, and I don't think even HE heard it right.  But regardless, it's good advice.  Stop expecting the Daddy Government to come and rescue you from your plight and lift you to the lap of luxury.  It's not what they do, it's not what they can do, and it's not what they should do.  It's nice you want to selflessly serve, maybe, but expecting something in return if you serve or not?  Please.