Penance

Way back when he was merely the mayor of Burlington, VT, Bernie Sanders voiced objection to private charity, because he believed it competed with and thereby undermined government charity. Per that worldview, charity is only good when it's being directed by the Right People who are all in government.

I was reminded of this when I saw this meme.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to ponder that, per this "Sanders Standard," Carnegie did it wrong. He should have given his fortune to the government, so that the government could build those libraries. And build them the way the government chooses. And build them where government chooses. And build them with workers the government chooses, and compensate the workers as the government chooses. And stock them with books the government chooses.

That's assuming the government felt that Carnegie's wealth would be best spent on libraries rather than something else.

I guarantee you that this path would have produced far fewer than 3000 libraries, and the libraries it produced would be not nearly as good.

But that's not of concern to the government, or to the progressives who extol that "Sanders Standard." Billionaires, in their view, commit mortal sin by being successful. No matter how much benefit their success brought to their customers, their employees, their co-investors, and the world at large. That sin must be atoned for, and since everything is about Other People's Money, that atonement must be financial. See: the purchasing of indulgences.

In a free economy, people become rich by offering goods and services that others want and that are better in some fashion than what others offer. In doing so, they improve the economy, and thereby the society, as a whole. In doing, they create jobs, liberate capital by selling something that's more financially efficient than what was available before, and yes, they pay taxes and fees and other bits and bobs to governments high and low along the way. Whatever obligation they have to society is taken care of in those transactions and in the payment, via taxes and/or user fees, for the use of public goods such as roads. There is no future obligation barring whatever has been written into contract.

That's not how the Bernies of the world see it, though. As Bernie-broskette Elizabeth Warren has informed us time and again, the obligation is eternal. "You didn't build that" is their rejection of the notion that, when you're done using a public good or service that you paid your taxes, fees, etc. while in use, you've satisfied your obligation. Your possession of any fruits of your success - and that success itself - is an affront to progressives, and also a trove they feel entitled to tap into forever after.

To understand this further, ponder the ongoing and ever-more-exposed hatred for Jews manifesting on the Left these days. Jews have long been champions of the downtrodden, having grown up in a culture that has a very deep understanding of oppression. They have been, and continue to be for the most part, reliably Team Blue voters. Why, then, has the Left so vigorously embraced the illiberal, repressive, woman-hating, gay-hating, murderous Islamic faction known as the Palestinians?

Thomas Sowell, a true national treasure, answered that question: Success.

When people are given the choice between hating themselves for their own failures or hating others for their success, they will hate others for their success.

For Jews to finally be accepted by the Best-and-Brightest, they need to start failing.

This also holds true for Asians in America. Why are Asians excluded from the Left's oppressed groups? They are minorities, after all, so by the identity markers that our elites use to sort people into oppressor vs oppressed, they should be extolled, protected, and favored. Instead, until the Supreme Court said "no more," they were held to even higher standards than whites when it came to school and college admissions. Again, the answer is a hatred of success. Especially, as Sowell noted, success despite oppression and bigotry and starting from the bottom.

That success serves as an in-your-face rebuttal of core progressive beliefs, of the arguments of systemic racism and systemic obstacles to economic success, and of the conclusion that the only way to promote success is via government’s heavy hand. Bear in mind as well that the Left ignores the history upward economic mobility seen in the black communities prior to LBJ's Great Society, again because it blows up their do-gooder narrative and points the finger of blame right back at them.

I don't look to canonize billionaires. They, like the rest of us, were and are flawed persons working in the real world. When they do bad things, I condemn those bad things. When they rent-seek, I condemn that behavior. But I'd rather have a passel of flawed private-sector billionaires in a partially free economy over a passel of socialist politicians and public sector do-gooders 10 times out of 10.