Inequality

According to the political left, one of the biggest problems in our modern society is: inequality.  A recent online article gave some statistics from California, where the top 10% of wage-earners earn 11 times the income of the bottom 90%.  And the richest top 2% own 20% of the wealth.  This is just for the state of California, but these statistics are probably close to those of the nation overall.  The article goes on to say that this is a “major concern,” and government must do something to correct it!

The source of envy.

The politics of envy has always been with us.  It began way back in the stone age, when humans formed communities and began trading with one another.  Inevitably, somebody would come up with an innovative idea, or would simply work harder, and accumulated more possessions than their neighbors.  The less industrious decided that this was not “fair,” so they banded together and devised ways to get a bigger piece of the pie, using whatever force or coercion it took.  Fast forward to the late 1800s, when class envy and governmental wealth redistribution got a major boost with the writings of Karl Marx.

One would think that, in the United States, a nation established on the very ideas of freedom and limited government, founded by those who suffered under the weight of over-reaching governments in Europe and elsewhere, that this line of thinking would be dead on arrival.  Dream on.  In the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the progressives somehow managed to insert a clause saying that a governmental goal was to “promote the general Welfare.”  The war on inequality had begun.  In 2022, the federal government spent $1.2 Trillion on welfare.  And that does not not include state and local spending.  Has all that spending accomplish anything?

We’re all different.

When the Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal,” it was referring to basic human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  It does not imply that everyone possesses the same intelligence, ambition, creativity, perseverance, aptitude, talent, or physical beauty.  We’re all different.  Which means, in a truly free society, economic outcomes will vary - a lot.  Freedom is messy. 

The leftists and progressives often point out that having economic power gives one political power.  The wealthy can make enormous donations to candidates and parties, giving them much greater control over the reins of government.  They call it the “golden rule:” he with the gold makes the rules. 

Indeed, politics has become one humongous game of money.  In 2020, candidates for President spent $6.6 Billion, and candidates for Congress spent $7.2 Billion.  All the down-ballot races likewise had super-sized budgets.  I can think of a lot of ways that these tens of $Billions could have been better spent.

For sale to the highest bidder: political power.

However, the root cause of this problem is not wealth inequality.  Rather, the problem is that political power is for sale to the highest bidder.  Elected politicians wield a lot of power, and people will do pretty much anything to get it.  High demand begats high prices.

Campaign finance laws, which have been around for awhile, make a feeble attempt to control this beast.  Looking at the numbers, however, it does not appear to be working.  Many alternate solutions have been put forth.  One proposal is for government to fund all elections, at taxpayer expense.  Yeah, like the government knows best how to keep expenses down?  What could possibly go wrong?!?

Political ad.

It should not be this way.  There should not be any kind of correlation between a candidate’s wealth, or ability to raise money, and how good of a job they will do.  Voters should not have to depend on paid advertising to learn about a candidate and where he/she stands on the issues.  In this Age of the Internet, that information is readily available to all. 

The news media also shares a lot of the blame.  Elections are different from other news stories (crime, natural disasters, scandals, etc., etc.) because elections are scheduled.  The media should treat all candidates equally, regardless of party affiliation, popularity, and war chest size. 

But until the day comes when vying for political office no longer requires a massive fortune, or consumes huge chunks of the nation’s wealth, let’s celebrate inequality.  Rather than wallowing in envy from comparing your meager wealth to the super-successful, compare your wealth to previous generations, who had a fraction of what a typical American owns today.  

In this society, everyone is equal.

Or see what happens when, as we see in many parts of the world, the citizenry buys into this phony bill of goods that “inequality is bad,” and that the government will “fix it.”  Then you end up with a system whereby the political rulers own all the wealth, and everyone else starves.