MY FATHER WAS A UNION MAN. He worked in the warehouse at Western Electric in Nashville for over 30 years. He was neither an innovator nor a risk-taker. He just dragged his ass out of bed and hauled it off to work for his family every goddamned morning. He did everything he was asked to do and he followed the rules. According to Amy Holmes, my father didn't produce any wealth, and therefore really didn't deserve any. Conservatives have a different conception of wealth and value, both what it is and how it's created, than the rest of us.
My father sent me to Vanderbilt University. He sent me off to study in Europe. He himself had never stepped foot outside this country, except when he was serving it in the Navy. Then, he sent me to law school. My father took his union wages, and he invested them - not in the stock market, but in me. From a strict profit-and-loss perspective, my father was a really lousy capitalist. But he knew something that is utterly lost on doctrinal conservatives. Investing in people, whether they are your workers or your children, or your fellow citizens, creates its own wealth and value.
John Legend, Amy Holmes, Connie Schultz and Cornel West discuss socialism and other issues on Real Time with Bill Maher. October 31, 2008.
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