Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 92
right is the fuel that runs the engines of progress. I believe this statement is true despite
the epithets thrown by those who don’t understand it or, in their self-granted greater
wisdom, try to regulate it, or worse, deny it. As I discuss later in this chapter, this does
not argue against other forms of compensation for values created. It simply states that
of all imaginable forms of compensation money is the most basic and it must be
received in enough quantity to provide personal dignity, comfort and security before it
can be substituted for self-satisfaction, recognition, honor, fame, glory or power.
When I ask young people why they want to get an education I hope to hear that they
want to improve themselves. My opinion of those who answer that way goes up
immediately. They will never be a burden to society, and therefore to me. However, I
often hear altruistic purposes such as righting life’s wrongs, helping the less privileged,
curing the sick, cleaning the environment, building a better society or many such
selfless goals. In these cases I know that unless they get realistic fairly soon, they will
eventually be mooching from those of us who are trying to take care of ourselves first.
They do this through the punishment-free system of despoliation called taxation.
Over taxation flowed from the usurpation by the federal government of the right to tax
production. The 16 th Amendment to the Constitution, depriving individuals of their
original right to keep all their income, in my view is an infringement on the basic
principles of this nation. Just as we repealed the 23 rd Amendment depriving the people
of their right to consume liquor, the 16 th Amendment should be repealed as a
permanent source of government revenue. Perhaps it could be strictly limited to
properly defined circumstances of national emergency, as it was during the Civil War.
Study after study reveals that raising public revenue through the taxation of
consumption would be less threatening to the engines of self-reliance and free
enterprise that created America.
Redeemingly, my experience suggests that the young idealists who scare me with their
answer, and we, who are looked at as their source of funds, have hope. I don’t
necessarily consider their lofty visions incompatible with making money. In fact at one
point or another we all have such wishes. Mine were the sparks that ultimately turned
on my light of understanding. The understanding that If I could first take care of me and
my family without mooching from somebody else was subsequent to experiencing those
idealistic impulses. It was a great step toward understanding the American compact and
then participating in it. Self-sufficiency required that I learn to be a good and steady
provider for my dependents. But then, the corollary question was: how does one make
money?
Finding this answer within the framework of morality that I learned at home and within
our country’s laws was the key to finding my place in the economy. I realized that
money is the common denominator of value. Money is not created. Value is created.
Making money is reaping the harvest of value. To make money, one must pursue value,
not money. The marketplace puts an invisible price tag on every piece of creation. We
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