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Sunday, December 8, 2013

Income Inequality -- the Reality

For the last five years, president Obama and the Democrats have been trying to do income redistribution in America.  All the time that these schemes are being undertaken, Obama and his party talk about the terrible income inequality that has hit the USA.  The rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer.

In my view, the most amazing thing about all the talk of income inequality is just how surreal it all is.  First of all, the Democrats discuss this issue as if the American people really care about it.  They don't.  Americans care about the health of the economy to be sure, but their goal is for their own families to do better rather than being concerned about how close to or far behind the super wealthy they are.  The recent Gallup pool of voters under 35 shows this.  When asked to identify the issues that concern them, over 40% of this group said the economy and 13% said healthcare.  Another item on the list was income inequality; it was mentioned by 1% of these voters.  The truth is that the extreme left wing of the activists in the Democrat party care greatly about income inequality; that's about it.

Second, while Obama and his party talk endlessly about income inequality, they do nothing about it.  Obama and the Obamacrats had total control in Washington for his first two year, and they made massive changes in the government.  We had the world's largest stimulus, tax changes, Wall Street "reform" and Obamacare as a result of those years.  Now, three years later, the rich are much richer and the median family income has fallen every year under Obama.  For all the talk, Obama has taken actions which have widened the income gap in America.

Third, the left seems not to understand that the way to reduce the income gap is to get those who are unemployed or underemployed good paying jobs.  Those jobs have to come from economic growth, not from some government mandate.  I had to laugh at the insanity today in an article in the Guardian that blamed income inequality on Capitalism forgetting its social compact.  The premise of the article was exactly wrong.  Increasing a few transfer payments to the very poor will not reduce inequality.  All that it does is to make poverty slightly easier to accept.  Let's put it this way:  the important issue is not whether people on food stamps get $200 or $205 per month; the issue is whether or not we can get jobs for these folks so that they don't need food stamps at all.

Most Americans understand the difference between some phony Marxist claptrap about income inequality and actions which really help raise the wages of the middle and lower income groups.  The time has come for Republicans to step forward with a coherent program designed to increase economic growth.  It is not enough to advocate tax cuts.  They need a comprehensive program.  In truth, I believe that if one of the potential 2016 presidential candidates came forward with such a plan and publicized it well, he or she would gain immense support.  Americans are ready to throw away the lamentations of the left which claims to care about them but which follows policies that drive more people into poverty.

 


 

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