Demonizing and punishing the wealthy go against the interests of every American.
An incredible amount of disdain and frustration among Americans in recent weeks and months have been directed primarily at the wealthiest. While some very well-off individuals certainly made some poor business decisions that have put their employees, shareholders, investors, communities, etc., in jeopardy, blaming and punishing the wealthiest of Americans for the country’s problems will do more harm than good. Here’s my take on it.
The wealthiest Americans are only wealthy because they have either directly or indirectly provided products and services that consumers (all of us) have wanted and purchased. They did not make this money by stealing, looting, hoarding, or by any other zero-sum manner. The richest 1% of Americans, most notably exemplified by the Forbes 400, include people like Michael Bloomberg, Sergey Brin, and Jeffrey Bezos - all of whom have created incredibly profitable businesses, and in the process have (albeit indirectly) generated hundreds of thousands of jobs, new markets, cheaper products/services, and tons of wealth for others. While it may be easy and satisfying to point to wealthy Americans with envy, ultimately our country would be weaker, and our own individual opportunities less, without such people who have generated so much for themselves.
The fact is that the more we seek to tax and redistribute wealth, and/or stifle the opportunities to generate wealth in this country (i.e. keeping corporate tax rates high at 35%, or creating another Sarbanes/Oxley-style regulation against industries), the worse off we’ll all be. Unless we understand that our current challenges have very little to do with greed and the plundering of “rich” people, and more to do with systemic challenges with our government, we will see a lot less opportunity and an overall weaker economy.
I personally want to have the opportunity, now and in the future, to generate as much wealth as possible, and to not be hated for it. I also know that many of us, including myself, want to join healthy, competitive, and profitable global companies, which would be hard to come by if entrepreneurs like Bezos and Brin did not have the incentives to strike it big in creating them. Yes, with steep regulation and redistribution of wealth, it may feel “equal” and “fair”, but what good are those feelings (because that’s all they are) when taxes and regulations stifle economic freedom and a robust, opportunity-generating economy for all?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Most of these arguments fall on either deaf or already knowledgeable ears.
You're talking about a game between winners and losers. People who have or who strive for wealth, and those who stopped developing around age 5 or 6, when it was still acceptable to want to be coddled.
Unfortunately, the U.S. has evolved in a way that values voting over responsible citizenry. Voting is (considered to be) as much of a right as anything enumerated in the Bill of Rights. There is absolutely no requirement to be elligible to vote other than being 18 and not legally insane. So what you have is lots and lots of people with no money voting for politicians (not statesmen, as it were) who promise to take money from people who have it and give it to their adoring, loser voters.
It is indistinguishable from a household in which children have equal decision-making power as parents in financial affairs.
America is also plagued with the absurdity of egalitarianism. While all Americans should be treated equally under the law, it does not follow that we all have some natural and equal measure of value as individuals. The value of an individual is measured by his abilities and behavior, not his propensity to continue to exist.
Why does the vote of a 19 year old hold the same weight as that of one twice or thrice his age? Why is a homeless man's vote as valuable as the next guy? If we're to attack one candidate or the other for his/her inexperience, why does the voter get away with being inexperienced? And if voting is such a cornerstone of a functioning democracy, if it is such a sinew of our success as a nation, why is it required in some states to offer voter registration to food stamp applicants?
There's a simple sign of what we're getting ourselves into, and it leads to the following: the coerced theft of wealth by the government from those who have it and "transfer" to those who don't is plainly against every natural principle of economic liberty, and will continue to effect a downward trend in freedom, self-reliance, happiness, and domestic peace. Should we continue to take such risks, we will endure the consequences by no others' fault but ours as a nation.
I don't know if that was a response to your post, but it certainly derived from it. Ha!
I've read both your entry and Sean's comments and I have to say that I greatly disagree. There is this very dangerous misconception that if you're not wealthy, you are a lazy loser who wants to sit there and collect on the rich.
My background: I am a hardworking recent grad who easily spends as many as 15 hours a week reading up on politics and I have had my business education and political science education and hope to continue it at NYU, Yale or Columbia soon. Yet I am part of the struggling middle class and I know all too well what it's like to work my butt off day in and day out and have no health care, no money and not have enough money to cover vital expenses, etc yet I don't complain and I don't expect government to coddle me. I come from a long line of hardworking people who have never relied on welfare or government assistant despite not having a bit of help--sometimes a decent meal--even with costs rising. It's an insult to say that me, my family, and other hard working democratics "hate" the rich and blame them. We aren't blaming the rich for being rich, if we are, we are blaming them for being short sighted more than anything. Perhaps, the some rich Americans have an aptitude for being able to create and run global companies that boost the economy, being able to see trends that will affect global markets but short sighted, incomplete, and intolerant and indifferent attitudes toward different levels and sectors of society society ("human planning" aspects such as thinking of distribution in terms of quality of life and not in monetary terms vs "business planning" aspects, they are not one in the same)as a whole outside the box of capitalism. You simply can't say believe such a thing as we are all against the rich and we are not smart enough to believe otherwise if we don't share a highly capitalistic view. While there are many uneducated democrats who don't do enough for their government, there are just as many uneducated republicans that think less government watching over them is best for all the wrong reasons.
Who doesn't hope to accumulate a fortune one day? It is a harsh reality that very few of us ever will in our lifetimes and we can read all the Forbes magazines we want and launch businesses, be a part of big business on wall street, have an understanding of it and most of all work hard and circumstance, over arching economic and political climates here and abroad, luck, a gifted mind and talent and charisma which few people really have naturally are strong determinants of who will be rich and who will not. Most of us will not fall in that blessed 1 or 2% with great personal wealth and will have the dream of doing so all our lives cloud the greater goal which is to better American society. I'm not saying it can't happen but being a good American means if I am making a half million a year and living a privileged and blessed life in one of the greatest countries on earth, I will graciously give up 35% to get better schools built than the drab and underfunded ones I went to as a child for children who aren't old enough to affect own their lives yet, build roads and Infrastructure, give social security to the old and disabled (I happen to have a father on disability who worked like a horse all his life before becoming too sick to work), and create government programs that promote healthy American livelihood, not just my own. You can argue that businesses will create programs to better society if not the government but there is no way to see to it that such a thing will happen. Perhaps, you've never had to go to a school with text books that are 30 years old and up to 1000 extra students. Yes, there are global corporations that are doing amazing things but the distribution is unequal and depends on preferences toward a cause and not based on who needs it most. If people such as innocent children who are unlucky in being zoned to schools that are disgustingly underprivileged, who is going to help them if there isn't at least a reliable source of funding and help. As minimal as it is, it is something. And may I say for those of us who didn't have the privilege of studying at a private university, federal funds are important as well as private scholarships which aren't always reliable even for exceptional students. And yes, welfare recipients deserve a vote. My boyfriend comes from a hard working family that immigrated here when he was 9 and because of short term welfare he was able to become a successful professional in a vital industry and an intelligent, American Citizen. Welfare is there for those who need it, not to abuse of course but not a reason to look down on a person. I've always volunteered in my community to help raise the standard of living and health of the American society. Even when I had less, I had something to give. And the more I get out of America, the more I can give back because I am damn lucky. My republican economics professor in b-school says the best way to help the poor is to not be one of them but not in reality we are all a paycheck away from the streets and when you are one of them and the Big Business decides not to contribute to help you temporarily get back on your feet because they've got bigger priorities to iron out that quarter, it simply won't matter that you are hard working, a responsible American, buy their products, and admire their capitalistic prowess. And isn't because these people in Big Business are bad, they simply have no obligation to help you or any part of society they don't feel is important in their eyes.
Post a Comment