Who do you trust to handle the economy?
Obama – 47%
McCain – 37%
Do these numbers worry anyone else? McCain’s gaffe during the Republican primary season aside, since when have we trusted a man who leans so far left of center with our money?
Obama wants to give tax credits to the American people. This is much different from cutting taxes (as much as he denies it) because money must first be taken in by the government before it is paid out. Obama’s plans sound like welfare for those of us who don’t need it.
There are plenty of people who find it appropriate, even necessary, that we tax the rich in order to even out the distribution of wealth in America, as if the vast majority of those we call rich have lied, cheated and stolen in order to acquire their wealth. Or that all the rich have simply come about their money by way of inheritance, and therefore do not deserve it. Do we really believe this, as Americans? Polls seem to indicate that we do.
America is a meritocracy. We rise and fall by our own hands. We believe that all men are created equal, not that they are equally entitled to the fruits of one another’s labors. Yet here we are, as a combined group of some three hundred million people, leaning in the direction of a man who does not believe in merit, but in handouts. In taking from one group, whether they like it or not, and forcing them to give to another. Is that America? Is this a country that forcibly rips the gains of one group of people and hands them to another?
Taking from the rich does not benefit anyone in the long term. For the time being it feels good to have the extra cash in hand, but the unseen effects of such policies are great: reduced innovation, a stagnant standard of living. These are the true costs of taxing the “rich.” For some reason people seem to believe that they are not living as good of lives as they were in the past. This is a very peculiar idea, because just fifteen years ago the Internet was still in its infancy. Now, we use it for our everyday lives – to make hotel reservations, purchase tickets, buy clothes, read our news…in short, do everything. Go back to the 1930’s and 40’s, and see how many people owned a color television set. Or a car with a GPS. Innovation increases our standard of living in a way that mere numbers can’t convey – and by taxing the rich and corporations, the incentive to innovate disappears. After all, why innovate if you won’t see any reward? If people are out to help one another, why haven’t all the communal societies of the past produced the technological advances of the United States? Why didn’t the Soviet Union turn out as the superpower of the 20th Century, and the hegemon of the 21st?
I’ll leave off this post with one final thought: if you look back in history, you’ll see another government that actively gave the people money out of the government coffers – the Roman Empire. If the people wish to be coddled, as the citizens of Rome were coddled, that is their right to do so. But we ought to keep in mind the lessons of that time, notably the result that followed.