Politics and Economics

Sometimes life surprises you. I just finished watching a PBS program and there were actually a couple of segments that presented the conservative side of economics. I couldn’t believe it. As I write this, it’s less than an hour before their coverage of the Republican National Convention begins, and PBS has people speaking well of conservative ideology!

As I watched the program several thoughts were stimulated in my thought process. I believe I’ll stick to the topic of economics for now, though other thoughts also surfaced. Particularly, I want to discuss liberal vs. conservative views of taxation.

Liberals and conservatives both want equality. The difference is what they think should be equal. Liberals want people’s incomes to be equal (more or less). If you make too much money then you should give some to people who earn less. They achieve this through the Income Redistribution Service or IRS (I may have gotten the words in the acronym wrong). Basically, they want to tax the rich and give to the poor. They paint themselves as a modern day Robin Hood.

The attitude of the liberal is “soak the rich” (or “Eat the Rich” if you’re an Aerosmith fan). In other words, stick it to the rich man ‘cause it’s not fair that I’m not as well off as he is. Take money from him and give it to me.

But is that really fair? Do (most) rich people not also work for their income? Is it fair to take the money they worked for and give it to someone who didn’t work for it?

If liberals have their way there would be no incentive to reach a higher standard of living economically. The more you have the more it will be taken away from you (through taxes). You are better off being poor and living as a parasite on the rich; you’ll get the money you want without having to work for it. Sometimes we call this ‘welfare’, and it used to be something self-respecting people refused to take part in. But now the attitude is that welfare is my right since I’m not rich. Forget that I don’t work for a living; the fact is that I’m poor and you should provide for me since I cannot (or more likely, will not) provide for myself.

This culture of entitlements is killing us (in more areas than just economics, too).

It was the “pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps” mentality that made America great. Liberals would do away with that in favor of a socialist attitude of giving everyone the same resources regardless of whether or not they work for them.

Conservatives, on the other hand, seek equality in opportunity. After that, personal responsibility should take over and you should take care of yourself. People deserve to have the same opportunities, but if you refuse to capitalize on those opportunities then it’s your own fault. You shouldn’t rely on those who were smart enough to seize those opportunities to support your mistakes. So taxes should not be arbitrarily raised on “rich” people.

Further, being rich is not wrong. And we should strive to attain a higher economic standing.

Contrary to liberal belief, it is actually very beneficial (even necessary) to have rich people in our society. Rich people create jobs! A person on this PBS program said, “I’ve never been hired by a poor person.” Wise words if you think about them. Not many people are employing people out of a cardboard box in a back alley.

If taxes are raised on corporations, how will they recoup those losses? They’ll lay off workers so they can stop paying those workers and save that money. What if taxes are lowered on corporations? They will have more money to expand their business and create more jobs which will help the economy at large.

What is the smart thing to do in an economic downturn? The liberals would raise taxes on the rich and on corporations and give that money to the poor since the poor are hardest hit in hard times. But that is the absolute wrong thing to do. It will drive the economy further into the ground because entrepreneurs will lay off more workers to maintain their profits which are being hit by taxes. Now the jobless rate is increasing because of higher taxes and more families are going hungry.

What a conservative would do is lower the corporate tax rate. This will allow for economic growth by creating a condition that is more hospitable for job creation. Now the jobless rate is decreasing and more families are keeping their homes and feeding their children.

I’ve never been hired by a poor person. Indeed. And I’ve never had a liberal politician offer to give me part of their paycheck without working for it.