In Praise of Income Inequality

Opinion: The most unequal place in America - CNN.com:

I grew up "lower middle class" and ended up "high middle or lower "rich"".  I've seen friends and relatives make the same transition and I've seen some go the other way. It is pretty easy to go from up to down ... I would not be at all surprised to see it happen to me. A bit of government confiscation, a stock market crash, sickness, etc. It always has and always be a lot easier to lose it than to make it.

The only perfectly "equal" place is one where everyone by law has ZERO. The old USSR came close. Of course the top 5% or so were MUCH more equal than the rest -- the Politburo the party chiefs, etc. ... but heh, they were "servants of the people" wink wink.

The other option is where America is fast heading ... and most third world nations already are. The vast bulk of the people lose their will to work and lose any sense that they could ever "get ahead" ... as what is encouraged by this article and the BO administration and my family as a youth. "The system is rigged, you don't have a chance, you have to have connections, it is all the big guys, etc".

Once the idea of upward mobility is destroyed, the culture becomes one of envy. "We need to take more of what the other guy has". So those that have been successful and those that have not given up on work hide out ... their assets are in metals, guns, land, equipment, offshore, etc. The net productivity of the financial and capability assets of the people drops precipitously and even worse, because the successful are hiding out, the models that prove that success is possible are at least nearly invisible.

The higher the standard of living possible the greater the income inequality! Guys worth 10's of billions really skew it, as do many people in the 10's of millions range.

It is interesting to note the "dream" of the person in this column. Not a newer trailer that didn't leak, not a car newer than her Taurus, but a giant home with servant quarters where she did no work at all! Unrealistic dreams are just one more way to fail to face reality and make better decisions day by day.

The article is founded on the absolute lie that somehow the folks that are wealthier are causing her to be poorer. The OPPOSITE is true ... go to other nations with far less wealthy, and the Taurus, the trailer with the leak goes away and she lives without power, toilet and clean water.

BUT they have lower income inequality!!!

Lovely, income equality or inequality is NOT a "basic good" ... in fact, it is essentially NOISE ... their are great countries with more income equality and there are great countries with less! By and large, more liberty means a higher standard of overall living, greater wealth of the nation AND greater income inequality.

Less liberty, lower general standard of living (compared to what would have been had with more liberty), less wealthy, and less inequality.

Give me Liberty and Income Inequality!

I loved the joke that went around about running a Democrat Home on Halloween ... take 1/2 the candy from the kids that came to the door and take it to kids that were too lazy to go out and trick or treat!


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