Of Income Inequality

The Beer:  Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA


The Bicycle:  Now that Christmas is over and I am back in town, it is time.


The VRWC:  Much press is given to "income inequality" these days.  There is a school of thought that believes we should all have just about the same income, apparently.  This school of thought focuses on the idea that too few people control too much wealth.  Not everyone has a piece of the pie.  A more progressive taxation system is needed.  More money (property) needs to be taken from those who "have" and given to those who "have not".  This is an extraordinary dangerous belief.  Who decides?  Who determines what an "equitable distribution of wealth" is?  An all-knowing federal government?  The ("This is what Democracy looks like") voters?  This is what the Founders wanted to avoid when they came up with the idea of a Constitution for a Representative Republic, rather than a direct Democracy.


Retired Librarian George Wagner writes in the (soon-to-be-pay-for-play) Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that most people want income equality.  Somehow he links income equality in Wisconsin to Scott Walker (apparently we were all equal under former Governor Doyle - equally miserable, I suppose).  Further, he makes a comparison of education systems in Finland and in the United States and finds the US wanting, not because of the education system itself, but rather because of "income inequality".  He shows neither proof nor evidence that "the plans of Gov. Scott Walker and national Republicans propel us toward more inequality than we have now".  The only thing he gives evidence of is how poorly informed voters are in the United States.

There is no time or place in history where Socialism/Marxism/Progressivism has worked.  The Soviet Union collapsed under its weight.  China is moving rapidly to capitalism and the EU is foundering under the Social Democracy model.  


The problem of income inequality in the United States is not a problem of capitalism, but rather a problem of Big Government Socialism and "Crony Capitalism".  Success is punished, innovation is stifled.  It is nearly impossible to start a small business without "knowing someone".  Navigating Federal, State and local regulations is nearly impossible with out an attorney.  Welfare has enslaved generation upon generation to the government plantation.  It violates the fundamental human right of self-determination.


This dabbling in Big Government, socialism, crony capitalism and cradle-to-grave care must end before we are truly able to eradicate poverty, but income inequality will never leave us.  Whether capitalism or socialism, some are more equal  than others.  In Capitalism, it is because of your own effort.  In socialism, it is because of who you know.