The Left's campaign to fight "inequality" is founded on both ignorance and intentional deception.
A pox on the songwriter who coined the lyric, "...the Rich get richer and the Poor get poorer..." It really has a catchy sound to it, and for Socialists it seems to verify a perennial complaint about capitalism.
But it has never been true, in any sense of the words.
In the first place, the "Rich" is not a static population. Surely, there are some people with inherited wealth that is sufficient to keep them at the top for years or decades, but this is a small fraction of those with the highest earnings. Most Americans who achieve some measure of success spend time in all of the five Quintiles at various times of their lives. They often start at a relatively low level, then move to the higher levels during peak earning years, then the earnings tail off at the end. So to speak of the Rich in, say 2008, then check back in 2018, most of those people are no longer at the top.
But it is clear that the top earners in 2018 earn more than the top earners did in 2008. That is largely due to the growth in the stock markets and in the contribution of advanced technology in earnings. But they are not the same people.
Second, the Poor are not getting poorer, when you look at overall income and quality of life. "Poor" people today have cell phones, multiple televisions, air conditioning, and cars. Their kids often have electronic games and gadgets, expensive shoes, clothes, and access to a fine education, if they choose to avail themselves.
And economically speaking, the myth that when one person has "a lot" that comes at the expense of a poor person who is denied something. The economy is constantly expanding, so that when entrepreneurs and investors accumulate wealth it doesn't come at anyone's direct expense. It comes from the FREE EXCHANGE of goods and services, benefitting both the creator/seller and the buyer/user of the goods or services or technology.
"Inequality" posits that some people can have "too much" wealth, and that is just as harmful as someone having too little.
Bullshit. If an inventor devises a program that will instantly do your income taxes when you enter your SSAN, and millions of people are willing to pay a couple hundred dollars each for that software (which costs the inventor nothing after it is developed), how does that harm society? S/he becomes a billionaire because millions of people are happy to pay a couple hundred dollars each for what s/he designed and brought to market. On what basis should her wealth be confiscated?
Seriously.
There is an economic problem in our society on which all political sides should be willing to work for a solution: Endemic, generational poverty. The fact that many are prospering at levels previously unheard of has nothing to do with it. The legal accumulation of wealth by a few DOES NOT prevent or impair anyone else from earning a living or accumulating their own wealth however they choose to do it.
The Right and Left may have vastly differing plans on how to combat endemic poverty, but we should all be agreed that it is a problem worth fighting. By defining the problem as "inequality," we demonize those who are legally successful, FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONFISCATING A PORTION OF THAT WEALTH, and using those ill-gotten resources for fund ineffective government programs that KEEP PEOPLE IN POVERTY for their entire lives. As has been demonstrated constantly over the past 50 years.
Anyone who wants to "fight Inequality" is either stupid or evil. Pay no attention.
A pox on the songwriter who coined the lyric, "...the Rich get richer and the Poor get poorer..." It really has a catchy sound to it, and for Socialists it seems to verify a perennial complaint about capitalism.
But it has never been true, in any sense of the words.
In the first place, the "Rich" is not a static population. Surely, there are some people with inherited wealth that is sufficient to keep them at the top for years or decades, but this is a small fraction of those with the highest earnings. Most Americans who achieve some measure of success spend time in all of the five Quintiles at various times of their lives. They often start at a relatively low level, then move to the higher levels during peak earning years, then the earnings tail off at the end. So to speak of the Rich in, say 2008, then check back in 2018, most of those people are no longer at the top.
But it is clear that the top earners in 2018 earn more than the top earners did in 2008. That is largely due to the growth in the stock markets and in the contribution of advanced technology in earnings. But they are not the same people.
Second, the Poor are not getting poorer, when you look at overall income and quality of life. "Poor" people today have cell phones, multiple televisions, air conditioning, and cars. Their kids often have electronic games and gadgets, expensive shoes, clothes, and access to a fine education, if they choose to avail themselves.
And economically speaking, the myth that when one person has "a lot" that comes at the expense of a poor person who is denied something. The economy is constantly expanding, so that when entrepreneurs and investors accumulate wealth it doesn't come at anyone's direct expense. It comes from the FREE EXCHANGE of goods and services, benefitting both the creator/seller and the buyer/user of the goods or services or technology.
"Inequality" posits that some people can have "too much" wealth, and that is just as harmful as someone having too little.
Bullshit. If an inventor devises a program that will instantly do your income taxes when you enter your SSAN, and millions of people are willing to pay a couple hundred dollars each for that software (which costs the inventor nothing after it is developed), how does that harm society? S/he becomes a billionaire because millions of people are happy to pay a couple hundred dollars each for what s/he designed and brought to market. On what basis should her wealth be confiscated?
Seriously.
There is an economic problem in our society on which all political sides should be willing to work for a solution: Endemic, generational poverty. The fact that many are prospering at levels previously unheard of has nothing to do with it. The legal accumulation of wealth by a few DOES NOT prevent or impair anyone else from earning a living or accumulating their own wealth however they choose to do it.
The Right and Left may have vastly differing plans on how to combat endemic poverty, but we should all be agreed that it is a problem worth fighting. By defining the problem as "inequality," we demonize those who are legally successful, FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONFISCATING A PORTION OF THAT WEALTH, and using those ill-gotten resources for fund ineffective government programs that KEEP PEOPLE IN POVERTY for their entire lives. As has been demonstrated constantly over the past 50 years.
Anyone who wants to "fight Inequality" is either stupid or evil. Pay no attention.
