{"id":733,"date":"2014-01-06T13:45:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T17:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jparnell.com\/blog\/?p=733"},"modified":"2014-01-06T13:45:52","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T17:45:52","slug":"be-thankful-for-income-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/?p=733","title":{"rendered":"Be Thankful for Income Inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Income inequality is the Democrat\u2019s official political villain of 2014, but this is not really new. President Obama often likes to distinguish between the fat cats and easy money of “Wall Street,” and the daily struggles of “Main Street.” The inference is that there’s only so much success to go around, and whatever goes to the rich on Wall Street is being withheld from its rightful recipients, the average guys on Main Street. John Edwards almost rode his version of this argument–“two Americas”–to the Democrat nomination for President in 2008. More recently it was the centerpiece of Bill de Blasio’s successful campaign for mayor of New York City. The inequality of outcomes argument is at the core of Marxism and has been repackaged by many redistributionists over the years.<\/p>\n

At the national level, President Obama has played the class warfare card incessantly since running for the office. A majority of Americans still reject socialism when clearly presented as such, so leftists are constantly looking for softer and more creative ways of repackaging the argument. Taxes have become contributions, government spending has become investment, and there’s a constant reference to everyone paying “their fair share.” Business leaders are greedy wealth-seekers while government leaders are “public servants.” The minimum wage must be a \u201cliving wage.\u201d The fact that some people\u2019s skills are worth more in the marketplace than others is now called income inequality.<\/p>\n

Who can oppose fairness, equality, living wages, public service, and investing in our people? These sound reasonable if not attractive to the uninformed voters among us, but they are really part of a concentrated attack on capitalism, one that threatens our survival as a free, productive society.<\/p>\n

Capitalism is based on freedom and views fairness through the lens of opportunity. Outcomes will, by definition, differ in a capitalistic society because individuals have different talents, goals, and motivations. Moreover, free markets are always fair in the truest economic sense<\/em>. Some might get more than others, but one\u2019s returns are based on the value one deliver to others through voluntary exchange. This diversity in financial outcomes is both necessary and beneficial to society for many reasons. I\u2019ll give you three:<\/p>\n

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  1. The highest wage earners in a society make the greatest economic contribution. They receive high wages because they offer the highest value. Brain surgeons save lives, CEOs run companies that produce products and services that enrich our lives, and even athletes and celebrities provide entertainment. Most of these jobs require advanced and\/or specialized training, high tolerance for stress, and the like. The higher wages attract individuals to these professions. Cut the wages through regulations and taxes, and you cut the incentives, and ultimately the quality of products and services they produce. Remember, transactions in a free economy are voluntary, so individuals can only<\/em> earn high wages when others obtain the benefits of the products and services they provide.<\/li>\n
  2. The highest wage earners pay the most taxes. The top 10% consistently pay more than 70% of the taxes in the US, enabling those who earn less to pay less. This is a reality that leftists who constantly promote more government spending to cure society\u2019s ills should champion, but they don\u2019t. Envy is the root of the problem and it\u2019s a powerful motivator of the masses in elections.<\/li>\n
  3. High wage earners create opportunities for the rest of us. The earnings they retain after taxes are either spent in the economy to create jobs or invested in firms that need capital to grow. They also finance many of the benefits we often take for granted. Consider that you can watch the Super Bowl in high definition free of charge even if you cannot afford to support any of the advertisers. Others\u2014including a high proportion of high-income earners\u2014are paying most of the freight.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Yes, income inequality is our friend, not our enemy. It\u2019s a healthy byproduct of a free society, not a demon that must be exorcised. Contrary to the President\u2019s rhetoric, our ability to reduce the gap does not define our greatness as a society. The fight against income inequality is a more subtle argument for redistributing income and expanding power of the state. Don\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Income inequality is the Democrat\u2019s official political villain of 2014, but this is not really new. President Obama often likes to distinguish between the fat cats and easy money of “Wall Street,” and the daily struggles of “Main Street.” The inference is that there’s only so much success to go around, and whatever goes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}