The debate on the tax cuts and the rich have lost a sense of bearing. As one on the higher end of the income scale I do not care about paying higher taxes. What I care about is what I am paying for. If higher taxes will provide better schools, safer streets, better roads, SOUNDER CURRENCY, sound stewardship of our community resources, and greater liberty and freedom of choice, then I will gladly pay more for it. I can even accept a role to provide for the truly needy.
But if the truly needy, those needing to draw money from money collected from others, are 48% of the citizens then we must realize that they are not the needy, they are just another constituency for the achievement of political power.
In a similar vein I do not care if interest rates are at 3% or 6%. What I care is that there are opportunities and an environment that will provide a profit opportunity above the rate of interest.
When the stereotypically liberal economic view looks at the rich as those that buy yachts, million dollars second homes, and private airplanes they ignore the much larger group: the working rich. What will they do with extra capital, whether from lower taxes, lower interest rates or better opportunities?
The will fund private school or college tuition, buy a better car, travel, donate to charity, buy jewelry, a new guitar, exercise equipment, elective plastic surgery, add a swimming pool to the house, get better seats at sporting events, dine in fancier restaurants more often, or upgrade their hotel rooms and airline flights. They will also save and invest in an effort to buy a more secure and better future; to profit.
Yes these are things the lower income do not indulge in as they struggle on less income, but the lower income in this country still enjoy a level of living that surpasses anywhere else in the world. Is luck involved? Yes. Is it fair? That is debatable. If you won the lottery is it fair that someone who did not buy a ticket should share in your winnings?
The great debate is between those who stress equality verses those who place a higher priority on economic growth. The modern economy has made many very wealthy people, but it is wrong to assume this came at the expense of someone else. The rationale that the very rich use to decide on investments is no different than that used by a much more moderate investor with their 401k. They seek clear and consistent rules and a an opportunity for a fair return.
It is still the nature of man to try to improve his lot. As Milton Friedman pointed out to Phil Donahue, we fare much better catering to our economic self interest than our political self interest.
The fruits of the new economy many not be equally shared, but the equality junkies care less about how well the lower income fare than about how much better the wealthy fare. In their effort to redistribute or punish the wealthy they invariably make life worse for the poor as well. After years of record stimulus spending we now face stubborn unemployment, a very weak recovery, and an increase in the number of people at the poverty level.
Yet corporations and individuals are increasing their savings and sitting on trillions in dollars of cash. This administration has broken the bank in spending in a futile effort to change human nature and ignore the inevitable.
Recent Comments