🠈 Gap Between Rich and Poor 🠊
Gap Between Rich and Poor
There appears to be a growing gap between the rich and poor in our society.
Left-wing radicals like to fan fears about this growing gap to gain power. Likewise, right-wing reactions use fear of the radicals to consolidate their power.
The problem with this radical/reactionary system of action and reaction is that the process leads to a concentration of political power which leads to an even more outrageous game between rich and poor.
I concede that the gap between rich and poor is problematic. Rather than calling for revolution, I believe that the better approach is to find ways to make the poor richer.
Tax the Rich
Left wing politicians tend to chant the mantra: "Tax the Rich!"
The problem with this approach is that powerful politicians decide what gets taxed and what doesn't.
Powerful politicians create a rigged game that taxes their enemies while providing tax breaks for their friends.
After a generation, one finds that the power brokers are the new rich. It is extremely difficult to tax the powerful.
The Productive v. The Powerful
Let's imagine two people: One person is creative and comes up with all sorts of productive ways to make money.
The second is good at fanning wealth envy and becomes incredibly powerful.
The person who got wealthy by creating wealth has fixed assets which are easy to define and tax. The person who is powerful does not have such fixed assets. This person can redefine his income in ways to avoid taxes.
We can run our taxes sky high and tax the creative into submission.
Here is the catch: There is no way to tax power. The powerful can transform the appearance of their income and avoid taxation.
Powerful people flame wealth envy and encourage the masses to march into the street demanding wealth equality. The powerful on both the right and left use this conflict to tax the productive.
In the long run we end up making the productive subservient to the political and the society diminishes.
Lift Up the Poor
Rather than taxing the rich, I believe that we need to find ways to pull up the poor.