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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The redistributive effect

The recently revealed statements by Obama regarding redistribution of wealth and his view that this should be a function of the federal government requires a note of reminder to everyone who ponders what Obama has said. The attempt by government to bring income equality in society always comes in the form of making the wealthy poorer, never making the poor richer. There are simply never enough resources to go around in a way that all people become well off. As a result, equality means equal poverty.

The US has prospered for centuries on the concept of equality of opportunity rather than equality of wealth. People began with nothing but opportunity and built large businesses employing thousands or millions. Think Bill Gates and Microsoft. How many hundreds of thousands (millions) of US workers hold their jobs because of that company? Just imagine now if Obama gets his way and makes sure that Gates cannot get rich so that it would not be unfair to others who are not as successful. Microsoft never gets going, the whole computer industry just limps along without much success, millions of jobs are never created, and the whole US economy suffers as a result. But Obama is happy -- ain't that great!

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