The key argument used by the left to promote higher taxes on the rich, more government control of the economy and more "entitlement" benefits to low income groups is the wage gap between rich and poor. Central to this ideology is the misguided concept that wealth is like a big cherry pie: the rich have the biggest slice (and taking more every day) while the less fortunate majority scramble for the rest. In the real world, there is no limit to the size of the cherry pie. Free enterprise, innovation, competition, risk taking and human imagination, free from the dead hand of government interference, are the real wealth builders. For proof, read the histories of capitalism and communism. And consider the fact that the top 20% of income earners in the U.S. pay 80% of the federal tax.
Sometimes, even the liberal media have to admit this inconvenient truth. Last week, the New York Times headlined an international research study* that found Canadian middle class incomes surpassed American middle class incomes for the first time in history. But how is this possible? Canada has had a Conservative government since 2006; in America, an enlightened Obama administration has promoted a "progressive" agenda since 2008.
The international study also challenges the latest darling of the left, Thomas Piketty. His new book, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century", argues that wealth never comes from innovation and risk-taking-----------the rich simply take a disproportionate share of the collectivist pie because they have the power to do it. How? Because the rich are a distinct, unified, connected class working as a monopoly. If that were true, we should all be worried. The fact is competition is the cornerstone of our free market economy. Look at the rise and fall of every major corporation ever issued on any world stock exchange. Watch how they evolve, merge, acquire, transform, rebrand, relaunch. That's reality.
*Luxembourg Income Study
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