Nobody capable of useful
work need today lack food and shelter in the advanced countries, and for those
incapable of themselves earning enough these necessities are generally provided
outside the market. Poverty in the relative sense must of course continue to
exist outside of any completely egalitarian society: so long as there exists
inequality, somebody must be at the bottom of the scale. But the abolition of
absolute poverty is not helped by the endeavor to achieve 'social justice'; in
fact, in many of the countries in which absolute poverty is still an acute
problem, the concern for 'social justice' has become one of the greatest
obstacles in the elimination of poverty. In the West the rise of the great
masses to tolerable comfort has been the effect of the general growth of wealth
and has been merely slowed down by measures interfering with the market
mechanism. It has been this market mechanism which has created the increase of
aggregate income, which also has made it possible to provide outside the market
for the support of those unable to earn enough. But the attempts to 'correct'
the results of the market in the direction of 'social justice' have probably
produced more injustice in the form of new privileges, obstacles to mobility and
frustration of efforts than they have contributed to the alleviation of the lot
of the poor.
From
economist Friedrich Hayek's "Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. 2: The Mirage of
Social Justice" (1976):
It seems as if everyone
today is talking about income inequality. Obama is
using it as a bogus political crusade to divert our attention from Benghazi, the
IRS and ObamaCare; Pope Francis is denouncing it as an ethical and moral
challenge. Bill DeBlasio ran with it as his signature issue to become Mayor of
NYC.
"Capital in the
Twenty-First Century" which the left is having schoolgirl swoons over. In it
Piketty, says only taxation can correct this problem, so he advocates a world
wide tax of 80% for anyone making over $500,000 a year. For those making less,
levies of 40% and 60% are proposed. This is all social justice masquerading as
a path to income equality which history has shown will not work when the market
mechanisms of capitalism have been thwarted by
ideology.
Yet no one
can really dispute that the gap between the "uber" rich and some of the rest of
us is growing. The real question is why?
Since 2008
the economy has been stagnant. In the first quarter of 2014 it grew by a
measly .1%. This was blamed on the severe winter which in turn was blamed on
"climate change" thereby turning an economic and political disaster into a cause
for further manipulation of the economy, one more time.
This
administration, in point of fact has addressed all things economic, via a
comprehensive "progressive" ideology that defies both common sense and the
modern marketplace. In doing this it has conducted a not so secret and not so
subtle war on capitalism itself and thereby created income inequality.
The true
cure for income inequality is economic growth coupled with prudent and common
sense policies and regulations which prevent or curtail among other things
..."crony capitalism"...excessive regulation ( 4000 new regulation a year on top
of the 200,000 "regs" that exist already)...massive Federal debt and
deficits...government growth which causes the private sector to remain in stasis
or contract...excessive taxation...waste and corruption in government
spending...an educational system that rewards you for showing up in K through 12
and then brainwashes you in the university...and failure to end programs that
don't work or need re-imagining in order to work in the 21st
century.
The "Fed"
has kept the lid on interest rates by "Quantitative Easing" but in so doing has
forced those with capital to invest until very recently in the market which is
still the only game in town if you want to make a buck. These
investments create wealth but do not create jobs. The Fed has also increased
anxiety about the inevitability of the inflation they seek to forestall. This
in turn adds to the overarching uncertainty which hovers over the economy like
a dark cloud.
The
President doubles down on this uncertainty with a war on fossil fuels that raise
energy prices for the average person to record levels, stifles job creation and
reduces the wealth of the middle class. This is done in a nation which has
longer term sources of energy than any other nation on
earth.
EPA
regulations in the name of climate change in particular, regularly kill
jobs and shrink the GDP. But the ideologues who practice a form of "Green
terrorism", don't care if people end out of work and dependent on government
instead of being independent, employed and contributing to a vibrant economy.
Today the levels of unemployment, under employment and people leaving the
workforce have reached "great depression" levels with certain demographics
within the population.
ObamaCare
also kills growth by driving the cost of health care through the roof while
delivering substandard care in a system designed by bureaucrats and not
Physicians. Job growth is thwarted by artificial requirements placed on the
size of private businesses disguised as reasonable regulatory limitations
linked to healthcare without ever once recognizing that from town to
town...state to state...and region to region there is no such thing as one size
fits all.
Globalism
has moved manufacturing off shore and turned us into a service economy with a
technical IT elite who increasingly make what they do and how they do it,
unintelligible to the average person. As it turns out it also makes us
dependent on a omnipresent, omnivorous technology which has taken over our
lives to the point of also making us strategically vulnerable from a national
security standpoint.
Our
politics seem about where they were before the Civil War. Harry Reid has turned
the Senate into a joke where solutions die in childbirth. It has rocked the
Republic to the core and begs the question of can a Republic work without
democracy. Nothing can grow in such a climate.
All of the
above and more, create "manmade" income inequality. All of the above involve
deliberate policy decisions that this administration has made which fly in the
face of common sense and the lessons of history.
Capitalism
today is sick, but not for the reasons the left would have us believe.
Capitalism is sick because of ideologues who say it is and have proceeded to
wreck it in order to prove their point. Capitalism is sick because this
President has infected it with socialism. The end result is the creation of a
society where being reduced to poverty, joblessness and loss of both economic
and political freedom and opportunity has perversely created a brave new world
of income equality where poverty will make us all equal.
ERLANDSSON
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