The whole Joe the Plumber thing got me to thinking about Biden's behavior during the Vice Presidential debate when he kept talking about fairness. To people like him and Obama, fairness is the idea that we are basically all more or less the same. It's a system of thought that says that we should reward people and give to them without regard for what their skills and work are actually worth. It's actually a lot like Robert Heinlein's argument about the ridiculousness of the labor theory of value when he points out that the product of a master chef is inherently worth more than that of an incompetent chef because the end product is its own determination of value.
This thinking is also something that most reasonable people reject in school. You know that old, tired line "if you didn't bring enough for everyone, you can't have any gum in class." The only difference is that it is dressed up in a more mature fashion for an older audience. Yet, at it's very core, Biden's view on what constitutes fairness comes down to a matter of "if everyone isn't very successful and well off, then none of us really should."
You know what's fair? Let everyone keep the product of their labor. Take only the smallest amount needed for the public good that a pluralistic society can agree on. Let each worker, business owner, etc. enjoy the fruits of their labor to the greatest extent possible. With that in mind, it's obvious what's not fair, and it's telling someone that they must work while others reap the benefit. The more he works, the more money goes directly into the pockets of ordinary, yet unproductive, citizens, or well-connected people and not the public treasury.
At the end of the day, it's the sin of envy and covetousness. People who think like Biden covet their neighbor's property. They begrudge them the fact that we're not all the same. Call it fairness until the heat death of the universe, but that won't change the fact that the only real fair system is one in which the average person gets to keep the lion's share of their pay check, without regard for how much money that actually ends up being.
This thinking is also something that most reasonable people reject in school. You know that old, tired line "if you didn't bring enough for everyone, you can't have any gum in class." The only difference is that it is dressed up in a more mature fashion for an older audience. Yet, at it's very core, Biden's view on what constitutes fairness comes down to a matter of "if everyone isn't very successful and well off, then none of us really should."
You know what's fair? Let everyone keep the product of their labor. Take only the smallest amount needed for the public good that a pluralistic society can agree on. Let each worker, business owner, etc. enjoy the fruits of their labor to the greatest extent possible. With that in mind, it's obvious what's not fair, and it's telling someone that they must work while others reap the benefit. The more he works, the more money goes directly into the pockets of ordinary, yet unproductive, citizens, or well-connected people and not the public treasury.
At the end of the day, it's the sin of envy and covetousness. People who think like Biden covet their neighbor's property. They begrudge them the fact that we're not all the same. Call it fairness until the heat death of the universe, but that won't change the fact that the only real fair system is one in which the average person gets to keep the lion's share of their pay check, without regard for how much money that actually ends up being.
"Take only the smallest amount needed for the public good that a pluralistic society can agree on."
I don't think this will work well. Heck, it's what we have right now. If someone makes enough, eventually a large enough faction will gang up to plunder him.
"...if everyone isn't very successful and well off, then none of us really should."
Vaguely reminds me of a quip by some conservative commentator somewhere at TownHall or something...that socialism just means equally distributed misery
You make a good point. But there is another aspect to people like VP Biden saying those things. And that is that they derive power and money from it. If he can sucker enough people into believing him and voting for him, then he gets power and money.
He knows better, he's just greedy. I doubt that he really gives a flying fig as to the well-being of the poor folks he gets to vote for him with that line.
For some interesting reading see this:
Number of Americans Outside the Income Tax System Continues to Grow
by Scott A. Hodge
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/542.html
That article shows that about 40% of American household don't pay any Federal Income Tax. So you can be sure that they vote Democrat in order to vote themselves more government benefits. Why not, it doesn't cost them anything.
It is a sad fact that we are already in a situation where the people who work are enslaved (by government) and forced to transfer the product of our labor to people who don't work and the ruling class. It is a moral abomination!
Regards,
Guillermo
Note to nitpickers: I am only talking about Federal Income Tax. I already know that just about everybody pays sales tax, property tax and FICA. So there is no need to point that out to me. Read the article!
When it changed from government of the people, by the people, for the people to government of the people, by some of the people, for the people, those that don't pay any taxes by sheer fact of "not making enough" lost, IMO, their right to have true say in the government. I cannot entirely begrudge those who pay the highest taxes making the government work more for their benefit, as they have gone from equal contributors (equal in percentage) to being the largest contributors. Like any corporation, those who have to put the biggest share in, get the most say in how it is run.