To the editor:

The latest diatribes by Barack Obama that Americans are selfish when they reject any attempt of government to plunder their wealth would be laughable if not for the fact many voters actually buy into this collectivist clap.

There is no moral equivalent between equal opportunity and equal results and the supporters of the ethic of self-sacrifice always use government to compel sacrifice from the productive to achieve their utopian goals.

In order to guarantee that everyone receives, then others must be forced to give. The altruists never acknowledge that the guarantee of other people’s sacrifices diminishes the motivation of those on the receiving end to become more productive citizens.

For the potentates who preach the virtue of selfless sacrifice, the value of the productive citizen is measured only in terms of how much he sacrifices for the “common good”. Sacrifice is demanded but they leave it to their favorite pressure groups to decide who gets sacrificed to whom and when the sacrifice will be demanded.

There is no way to maintain a society of creative, productive individuals when people are led to believe the value of wealth is determined by the vastness with which it is spread.

We cannot expect people to take responsibility for their lives if there are no consequences for bad behavior or errors in judgment.

In America today the doctrine of selfless service and sacrificing one’s interests to enable others has been elevated to the highest of moral ideals. It is has given rise to the idea that a person’s life has no value but to serve others, share the fruits of his individual achievements, be chained to collective action and toil for the “common good”.

We will not be able to maintain a free and productive society if the unquestioned “duty and selfless service” morality of Soviet Russia takes root in America.

— Frances Schwartz

Houston, Texas