Posted on 06/10/2005 12:11:51 PM PDT by Numidian Horse
Priming the Pump of Envy
June 10, 2005
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Lee Duigon
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As the New York Times, the labor unions, and the MoveOn.org crowd just keep on and on lamenting "the unequal distribution of wealth" in the Bad Old U.S.A., it might be useful to take a look at the only state in history that made a serious, sincere effort to equalize wealth among its citizens.
That state was Sparta, ancient Sparta.
Starting at around 600 B.C., the Spartans tried to re-engineer their society so that all Spartans would be equal. Credit for this idea usually goes to the lawgiver Lycurgus, who may or may not have existed.
To make all Spartans equal, Lycurgus had to make them all poor. No palaces for the rulers, no conspicuous consumption, and no division of labor: that was Lycurgus' formula.
Land was redistributed, houses were rebuilt to make them all the same, and every adult Spartan had to eat every meal at a communal mess hall. Sorry, no latte. Spartan coinage was redesigned. Large, ugly, heavy, and made of iron instead of gold or silver, Spartan money was intended to be virtually worthless, especially to non-Spartans. It was.
A Spartan male had only one career option--to be a Spartan soldier. A woman's career choices were limited to marriage and motherhood. It's much easier to achieve equality when everybody has exactly the same job.
All the other jobs were done by slaves called helots. To these slaves fell the entire burden of the Spartan economy. Slaves who didn't like it that way were killed.
This radical social experiment failed. The more the Spartans saw of the food, clothing, and housing enjoyed by the people of the other Greek cities, the more they wanted the same for themselves. In time they revolted against Lycurgus' laws and forever abandoned the quest for absolute equality.
The truth is that poverty is often a state of mind. Poor people in America would be considered rich by standards prevailing in places like North Korea, Egypt, Zimbabwe, or Russia. Besides which, there is no institutional impediment to any American citizen's quest to better himself economically.
Want some money? Get a job. Want more? Get a degree, get a better job, and work harder.
The class warfare promulgated by the American Left and the Democratic Party is based on pure covetousness.
If I'm broke and Joe has $100 to his name, that's no big deal. If Joe starts a business, works hard, makes wise decisions, and opens a factory in our home town; and if I get a job at that factory, and earn enough to meet my needs and not be broke anymore, I ought to be pleased--right?
But if I listen to the Left, the fact that Joe's income is now many times higher than mine is something I ought to resent, and look to the government to "correct". It's not "fair distribution of wealth," and the state has to fix it by taxing Joe to death. Although my own economic position has greatly improved, my covetousness--stoked high and hot by liberals--has made me more unhappy than I was when I was penniless.
Meanwhile, no one is holding any telethons for New York Times columnists and union leaders. Their vision of redistribution does not include the state stripping them of their privileges.
I wonder how many "poor" families George Soros' money would support for the rest of their lives.
Don't hold your breath waiting to find out.
Lee Duigon
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lee Duigon is a Christian free-lance writer whose work can be seen regularly at www.chalcedon.edu.
"How to achieve equality--make everybody poor!"
Hell, you don't have to be equal to do that, look at my cousin, he's broke and don't do sh!t.
Poor is a state of mind ~ broke is a condition.
Very interesting history lesson. Equality of income and wealth is simply unachievable, and reading this undesirable. Most of the less fortunate friends and aquaintances I have, is simply that they do not CHOOSE to work hard as money isn't as important to them as to others. In fact my Dad always told me "money is not important, only the lack of it".
The “Bad Old U.S.A.” So bad that people are dying trying to get here to live such a terrible life. I wonder why we don’t hear of the millions of Americans fleeing to such socialist paradises as Cuba and Red China.
For most of my adult life I have worked two jobs.
Why? The work I prefer doesn't have great financial rewards and I like the stimulation. I do OK (not by any means great) this way.
There is always some one who thinks there is something wrong with this. Usually a liberal.
Priming the Pump of Envy
Fluffers?
The liberals and RATS live-and-die by seducing the ignorant with the envy bug. This tactic works especially well on 5-year-olds and liberals in their typical state of arrested development.
Spartan equality, to work, required that some people be slaves.
For there to be perfect equality, some people had to be less equal than others.
Good article bump!!
Also see Walter Williams - How not to be poor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1400835/posts
ping.
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