All this talk about income inequality coming from the high profile Democrats is a rather transparent way to buy votes from those who, for whatever reason, resent those who have the energy, skill and intelligence to make a lot of money. Instead of resenting them, we should admire them, and dare I say it, emulate them. But it's easier to simply vote for the share-the-wealth candidates.
Mickey Kaus has hit on something. He suggests shifting the focus to respect, i.e., the respect of a person due to their occupation irrespective of how much money a person typically earns in that occupation. That's a good point. There are many professions these days that don't get enough respect. Plumbers come to mind. Respect of profession is implicit in the most popular question of the newly introduced -- "what do you do?" So sharing the respect does make sense, especially for those Democrats who have the ability to overcome an obsession with money.
But back to the point of this post, which is somewhat related. Much of the resentment of success today probably stems from the education young people received in government schools. After all, it seems logical that an educational system created, controlled, and funded by government may have a tendency to foster a sense of dependency on government. And that would also tend to stifle the kind of innovation necessary to hit it big outside of government.
Although I've never actually seen one, there's talk of this phenomenon called the "participation trophy." That would be a trophy presented to a child simply for showing up. Not every kid can be the best in class, not every school track runner can win every race, and so on. So they get a participation trophy. America needs something like that on a national scale. For every Steve Jobs there are millions of everyday people who wish they could not have accomplished what he did or accumulate the wealth he did. So instead of taking his wealth for redistribution to the masses, hand out participation trophies. You may not have the skills to get rich, but you tried. And boy, that sure is a nice trophy!
Comments