America's soil needs amending

Just like the soil in the garden requires attention to ensure that it maintains its proper balance and distribution of nutrients, it seems our country's culture requires some attention as well. Many people have written about the huge gap between the wealthiest individuals and the least well off. But like a garden requires weeding, watering, occasional soil amendment and crop rotation to do its best and be most productive, we all need to realize our dependence upon each other for success in this culture. There was a particularly good editorial today that addresses this in the New York Times. Read it here.

Included in that editorial was a quote from Elizabeth Warren, who is running for Senate in Massachusetts and who captured this sentiment exactly for me:

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there, good for you. But, I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory and hire someone to protect against this because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”


Gardeners know that you can't just take and take and take from the garden. You have to invest in it as well. No one is entitled to a perfect garden. Or a perfect country. It takes work. 

Image from Rhinestone Armadillo blog