Try to imagine your life at 18 years old. You maybe are thinking of college….moving out of the house…..getting 4 roommates in a cool apartment…..moving to a trailer on 4 acres in the mtns….becoming a ski bum..having a baby and struggling with food stamps…..working retail at minimum wage….working an assembly line.
Any number of things. Do you also imagine the life will stay that way forever? Of course not.
The object of the game is to improve. Move up. Become management. Get new skills. Marry rich. Get a temporary 2nd job. Etc, etc.
Yet somehow Eugene Robinson imagines that the poor will always remain the same while the rich just keep “stealing from the poor”.
Based on a study showing that over 30 years the poor did 18% better while the rich did 275% better he concludes that the rich are getting richer off of the poor’s money!
My personal conclusion would be that we all generally start at similar poor levels (see first paragraph) and then we work our way out. So if we work our way out and those not in the poor levels are doing 30-275% better aren’t we doing pretty good?
No one “took” any money from me when I was poor. How is it getting taken now? You can’t even blame the government because the poor aren’t paying taxes. He suggests that the rich get rich because of power over the government, thus influencing the government to essentially give them, the rich, more than their fair share. ?
So it does matter that as the pie grows, the various slices do not grow in proportion. We’re not characters in one of those lumbering, interminable, nonsensical Ayn Rand novels.
I have to disagree. The more I pay attention to what is going on out there the more it looks like we are exactly in an Ayn Rand novel. It’s a little frightening.
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