I love the show The Food That Built America, in which they go through the history and rise of dead flat broke entrepreneurs who went on to create great American products that went on to become great American companies. For a historian like me, it’s addictive.
Why do I love it? Because each show tells the story of not just one, but sometimes two or three competing entrepreneurs and their struggles to become great American icons. Take Lunchables, created by Bob Drane while working at Oscar Mayer. Lunchable saved Oscar Mayer. That was a fun one to watch since my sister and I were one of the testers of Lunchables.
One of the product managers, Todd Jarred, was on ski patrol Saturday shift at Devil’s Head when my sister and I were skiing the Saturday shift with my dad. (My dad was on ski patrol, and I also joined the patrol at 15.) Todd used bring various forms of the forerunner of Lunchables (not in the fancy plastic packaging that you see today) up with him on the Saturday shift and ask Jeannie and I to try them out. We got a free lunch for a lot of Saturdays – so long as we agreed to give him our feedback and answer his questions.
It was fun and tasty. Who knew then that it would turn out to be such a big hit. Well, honestly, my dad thought it was silly, but Jeannie and I kept telling Todd it was a genius idea and would be a big hit. (Disclosure: I used to deliver the newspaper to Oscar Mayer III; he was always my biggest tipper at $20 when other customers would tip between zero and $5, with a few at $10.)
Another great American company is Pabst-Blatz. Pabst and Blatz were independent companies – until my grandfather merged them as president of Blatz. Both were started long before, had great brands and beers, and were located in Milwaukee. Both were at the top of the game. After they merged, the government sued them and the suit went on for many years, and while they were distracted fighting the government, Miller went on to innovate and take the top spot.
The lesson – that government most often tries to destroy the private sector when it becomes too large, especially targeting innovators. Prevagen, the memory supplement, is another example.
A fantastic company, started in Madison, Wisconsin. (The company was my tenant and I served on the board.) After reaching success, the company was sued by, yes, you guessed it, the government – specifically the FTC, which claimed its advertising was misleading. Why? because it was successful and the lefties on the FTC decided that Prevagen would be a great target. (Notice, they don’t ever sue a failing company, they only go after the successes.)
Trump just canned the members of the FTC (some are suing). They were supposed to be protecting consumers. The agency held American companies and innovation back.
So many great American stories. So much government. And that’s the problem. Too much government. When government gets too big, the people in government think themselves all powerful. They begin to think that the private sector exists solely to serve them, to provide tax revenue to them.
Of course, they’ll destroy the goose that lays the golden eggs. Think of the recent example of the judge ordering Trump to pay out $2 billion to just a few climate advocacy organizations. The judge and the leftists don’t care that this nation is $37 trillion in debt and about to go broke.
They will take, take, take. And like during FDR’s rein, those in government will happily take 90% to 100% of your income, then return to you a small fraction of that – if you genuflect at their altar. Just like the Soviet Union and East Germany, they will confiscate everything you own, and they will own it while you own nothing, and they’ll let you subsist on a few pennies while you serve the government. It’s happened before – overseas and right here in the USA.
This is why Trump must be successful in reducing the size of government, because big
government is big trouble for you and me.
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