I am beginning a new series on Economics for Liberals. In addition to the fact that our establishment politicians from both parties are stunningly and disgustingly corrupt, it is amazing how uninformed they are (with some notable exceptions) on many critical issues, including basic free market economics. Most of our politicians are shallow and do not read or think enough to effectively serve the US citizens they swear an oath to protect. I believe most regular Americans share my disgust at the increasingly shallow, corrupt, and delusional elites that purport to lead us. In this first article on basic economics, I address why basic socialist impulses involving class envy for people more successful than us distort and obscure the fundamental truth that free market economics are not zero sum. In other words, the fact that my neighbor may be richer than I am does not hurt me in any way. Indeed it benefits me. For example, if my neighbor spends significant money improving his house and making it more beautiful and impressive than my house, which will normally raise the value of my property too, because it makes the average value of the houses in my neighborhood more valuable to realtors and investors. In a democratic free market economy, the most successful persons who often becomes millionaires generally increase (not decrease) the wealth and opportunities available to their neighbors. Far from envying the wealthy and successful, we should be grateful they are American and hope and pray they stay in our country and continue to make us all wealthier.
Interestingly, the unequal distribution of success and wealth in a capitalistic economy does not hurt poor and middle class citizens, as sloppy liberal thinkers like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Barack Obama constantly suggest. This is a socialist cliché, but it is provably false. Private wealth is not zero sum: my having more does not cause you to have less. Far from being injured by billionaires such as Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and the Walton family (who own Walmart), regular Americans benefit enormously from the rich people at the center of our capitalistic advancement. As the saying goes, “no poor man ever gave me a job.” But the full scale of the contribution to society by wealthy individuals is often both misunderstood and deliberately misstated by intellectual pigmies, such as Warren, Sanders, Biden, and AOC. Wildly successful businessmen and business women create millions of jobs for regular Americans. Imagine the number of millionaires and other well paid individuals who earn their livings at Microsoft, or in the scores of independent businesses orbiting and serving Microsoft. Each of these great businesses, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Walmart, and so on, employs thousands of Americans, often paying them high wages and benefits. The number of millionaires and billionaires in a capitalist society is usually an indicator of wealth and prosperity of the entire society. That wealth and prosperity then percolates through the entire society making millions of other persons wealthy or at least comfortable. Ironically, it is in communist societies where most of the wealthy is held by a corrupt ruling elite, while most of the population lives in poverty. Putin is the richest person in Russia. Madero and his daughter are the richest people in Venezuela. The Castros were the richest and most powerful people in Cuba, while the average Cuban family lives on about $1000 a year.
In contrast, wealth and opportunity are every where in the US. The US has about 22 million millionaires and over 614 billionaires, the most in the world. When they create businesses they hire millions of the rest of us. When they build mansions or yachts, they hire construction workers and boat builders. Meanwhile, contrary to leftist propaganda, the wealthy pay the majority of federal income taxes. People in the top 20% of US incomes pay almost 90% of all income taxes. This is already far more than their fair share. I have given this statistic several times in other articles, but the bottom 25% of Americans economically live better than 75% of the rest of the world.
So, do not envy or hate the rich in a capitalist society, and do not be suckered by people like Warren, Biden and Sanders into picking on or punishing the successful: that simply makes the entire society poorer and poorer. The more we can leave wildly successful people alone to keep doing what they are doing, the more wealth and opportunity they will create for everyone else, including people who are less creative and talented than they are. This is the success story behind every capitalistic society. If the government leaves hardworking, creative, and successful people alone, they will grow the economy and increase the wealth of everyone else. Don’t play the fool and give in to liberal hate and ENVY: the liberal elites, many of whom never ran a business or achieved anything of note themselves (e.g. Sanders, Warren, Biden, etc.) naturally want to steal the wealth of successful people. Being incredibly envious and hateful, they resent the success of others and thus become successful after a fashion by stealing other people’s wealth and achievements. Honestly can you explain how Biden, who lied his way through his career and rotted in government for 50 years at a government salary, is now worth more than 20 million. How did this happen? Biden did not invent the personal computer, the electric car, cell phone, a new internet business system, or anything else original. He also never ran a successful business. Instead, he was and is an uninspired bureaucrat who rotted in government for 50 years without distinguishing himself. Even at his best, Biden was considered mediocre.
More recently Biden added shame and perhaps even treason to his resume. Biden betrayed his own country and fellow citizens, and the Chinese Communist Party and the Russian oligarchs paid the Biden family 10s of millions for that betrayal. In your conscience now, shouldn’t our disdain be directed towards people like Biden, who made their way through graft, instead of towards people like Elon Musk who pioneered electric vehicles, battery technology, and reusable rockets. How can you excuse a charlatan like Biden or a hollow blabber like Sanders or Warren and then spew hatred for someone like Musk who is trying to ensure the long term survival of humanity? It is so perverse to see complete and utter nincompoops like Warren and AOC attacking Musk and other successful people, when the successful already pay more than 90% of all taxes, while creating all those opportunities for the rest of us. God bless our millionaires and billionaires. While I can agree that some eccentric billionaires can do harm when they intervene in politics or attempt to reform society according to their own sometimes bizarre ideas, without economically successful people like that we would still be painting on cave walls.
Copyright 2022 By Paul H. Beattie. All rights reserved.
Notes from the Secular Right 