Posted on 10/26/2011 8:41:49 PM PDT by LesDowrey
Of course it would be desirable for wealth to be more evenly distributed in the U.S. But the way to do this is to bring up the bottom, not to tear down the top.
I'd start with turning Social Security into a fully funded system with personal investment accounts and real wealth accumulation. Give it a couple of decades, and every family that has a reasonably steady work history would have at least a modest next egg. That would be tremendous progress.
Fix urban public education (I'd voucher the schools) so that millions of poor kids had a shot at a decent education. That would do wonders.
Get public payrolls and pensions under control to stabilize state and local government finances, then cut taxes and over regulation in the cities to encourage small business formation.
Control the borders. We import poor people by the millions every year, and then liberals howl that the income needle is stuck at the bottom rungs of the ladder. Duh.
The biggest drivers of intergenerational poverty are illegitimacy and the collapse of marriage among the lower class. That's a cultural problem which resists easy policy intervention, but the right kind of welfare reform is a start. Again, conservatives own this issue.
So yes, let's have a debate on how to reduce income inequality in the U.S. That's a goal most of us agree on. The question is method. The leftist solution is to massively penalize success, crush business formation and economic growth, increase welfare dependency, and level down. The constructive solutions are on the right. That's a debate I'm ready to have any time.
43% does not equal 99%... Can we report them for defamation of the American people? A slogan change is in order.
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