"Where is a society headed that holds its most productive members up to ridicule and scorn and makes mascots out of its least productive and most parasitic members?"
"Where is a society headed that holds its most productive members up to ridicule and scorn and makes mascots out of its least productive and most parasitic members?"
Some people have much higher income and wealth than others.
President Rodrigo Duterte has called them “oligarchs and monsters” and wants them destroyed.
Former US President Barack Obama said, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”
Many Philippine politicians, church leaders, and intellectuals have asked them to return their money to society.
An adviser to US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has a Twitter account called “Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure” tweeted: “My goal for this year is to get a moderator to ask ‘Is it morally appropriate for anyone to be a billionaire?'”
US Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren, in calling for a wealth tax, complained, “The rich and powerful are taking so much for themselves and leaving so little for everyone else.”
These people would have an argument if there were piles of money on the ground called income, with billionaires and millionaires surreptitiously getting to those piles first and taking their unfair shares. In that case, corrective public policy would require a redistribution of the income, wherein the ill-gotten gains of the few would be taken and returned to their rightful owners. The same could be said if there were a dealer of money who—because of his being a racist, sexist, multinationalist, and maybe a Dutertard—didn’t deal the money fairly. If he dealt millions to some and mere crumbs to others, decent public policy would demand a re-dealing of the money, or what some call income redistribution.
You will say, “Eric, that’s crazy!” You’re right. In a free society, people earn income by serving their fellow man. Here’s an example: I wash your car, and you pay me P200. Then I go to my favorite restaurant and demand a meal. In effect, the owner says, “Eric, you are asking your fellow man to serve you by giving you a meal. What did you do to serve your fellow man?” My response is, “I washed his car.” The owner says, “Prove it.” That’s when I produce the P200. We can think of the, say, two P100 bills as certificates of performance—proof that I served my fellow man.
A system that requires that one who serves his fellow man to have a claim on what he produces is far more moral than a system without such a requirement. For example, Congress can tell me, “Eric, you don’t have to get out in that hot sun to wash a car to have a claim on what your fellow man produces. Just vote for me, and through the tax code, I will take some of what your fellow man produces and give it to you.”
Look at the multibillionaires featured in BizNews Asia and Forbes to see whether they have served their fellow man well. They didn’t acquire that wealth through violence. Millions of people voluntarily plunked down money to buy their products and services. That explains their great wealth. They discovered what their fellow man wanted and didn’t have, and they found out ways to effectively produce and serve it. Their fellow man voluntarily gave them money. If they had followed politicians’ advice that “at a certain point” they’d “made enough money” and shut down their companies when they had earned their first billion or two, mankind wouldn’t have most of the technological development we enjoy today.
Many billionaires have made great contributions to society. One of my favorites is Gordon Earle Moore—co-founder of Intel. He has a net worth of $6 billion. In 1968, Moore developed and marketed the integrated circuit, or microchip, which is responsible for thousands of today’s innovations, such as MRIs, advances in satellite technology, and your desktop computer. Though Moore has benefited immensely from his development and marketing of the microchip, his benefit pales in comparison with how the world has benefited in terms of lives improved and saved by the host of technological innovations made possible by the microchip.
The only people who benefit from class warfare are politicians and the corrupt-crony elite; they get our money and control our lives. Plus, we just might ask ourselves: Where is a society headed that holds its most productive members up to ridicule and scorn and makes mascots out of its least productive and most parasitic members?
eric.jurado@gmail.com