- The Left And Income Inequality

Okay, we get it. The people on the political left (especially the media people on the left) don’t like rich people. They think the only economic issue we should be worried about is that some people have more money than others.

According to them, we shouldn’t be worried about the ability of people to improve their own lot if they choose to. And we definitely shouldn’t be worried about how leftist policies make things worse not better. All we should think about is the rich ‘fat cat’ sitting in his mansion lighting his cigars with $100 bills. It’s all about class warfare. Fine. We get the point.

But here is a question for all those liberals who can’t seem to get past their own envy long enough to worry about anything else: Why exactly do you think that having government impose a penalty on those rich people will help things? Has government ever made anything more ‘fair’ for anyone? In my view the only thing government has ever imposed was a profound UN-fairness. And it sounds to me like all you want is for them to impose even more of it.

If I take you at your word, then all you want is for government to act as your authorized thief. You want them to go to the rich person’s house, steal his money and give it to you. You don’t say it that way of course. You call it ‘making him pay his fair share’. But you aren’t going to give him any more for his trouble, so what you’re really talking about is simply taking more of his money by force –against his will. Theft.

“No no no!” you say “he only has the money because he cheated! He bought lobbyists and manipulated the system to give him a greater share of the pie!” Well first of all, a modern economy isn’t a pie to be sliced up by the government – but having tried to explain this to you countless times before, let’s set that particular issue aside. More to the point, where was your virtuous government when the rich guy was buying it up with lobbyists? Are you so stupid that you believe that all Democrat politicians are virtuous while all Republican politicians are evil, so only the Republicans can be bought? Can anyone in modern America really be THAT stupid?

Or is it at least possible, that there is another issue? Is it possible that all these problems of unfairness are actually made worse by the government rather than better? Maybe telling your congressman to rob someone else and give you the money isn’t the most sound economic policy to pursue. Maybe you can leave the top 1% destitute and sleeping in the streets, and there won’t be nearly enough money to make a dent in the wants of all the 99%. Maybe guys like Steve Jobs and Warren Buffet haven’t actually cheated the system at all, and you’re really only being manipulated by people who would rather destroy American society that see it ruled by anyone but them.

And maybe if you really want to shrink the gap between rich and poor, you should go get a job, and live within your means. Maybe you should tell the government to let you keep more of what you earn. Then if there is a bigger gap between rich and poor, by the time you get to be as old as the average ‘rich’ person, at least you’ll be on the ‘rich’ side. You don’t have to be a Bill Gates to end up rich, you just have to save money over the long term, work hard, and be careful.

And while you’re having this (probably very first) bit of honest introspection about your motives, maybe you can explain to me how proposing increased individual responsibility is evil? Or you can tell me how it’s racist to demand that our institutions no longer consider race? Because to be perfectly, frank, I find those parts of your worldview damned puzzling too. Seriously, why don’t you try making just a little bit of sense, please. Try to be consistent with that part of the universe which is objectively verifiable by others, instead of woven from whole cloth from your imagination.

In the end it will help you much more than allowing yourself to be so visibly manipulated by ambitious men who are only trying to turn your fear, envy and sloth into more political power for them.