They are just showing their true colors. And they are not red, white, and blue.
Posted on 01/11/2007 6:22:55 AM PST by Quilla
You make too much money! And you make too little!
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., put it somewhat differently. But the new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee vowed to tackle the growing, festering problem of "income inequality." "Government doesn't have to interfere with the free enterprise system," says Frank, "but we can work along with it to reduce inequality."
Railing against Home Depot's $210 million severance package for its fired CEO, Frank called it "further confirmation of the need to deal with the pattern of CEO pay that appears to be out of control."
What does Frank propose to do about the "income inequality" in, say, baseball? New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez several years ago signed a contract for a quarter-billion dollars. That's "b" as in "bodacious." Pity the teammate who toils at the league minimum of $380,000 a year. Will Smith reportedly gets $20 million per picture. Most members of the Screen Actors Guild work at other non-acting jobs just to make ends meet.
What exactly is the appropriate gap? How wide should it be? Presumably Mr. Frank possesses the divine wisdom to know when the gap is jus-s-s-st right.
Understanding Frank requires understanding the deep recesses of the Democrats' psyche about wealth and its creation. Recall former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, who once said people of wealth in America are "the people who have won the lottery of life." Obviously, Messrs. Frank and Gephardt consider the old hard-work formula dated and dysfunctional.
A friend told me a story of an executive, "Bob," who works with her at an insurance company. During a golf outing, Bob told her his life story. His dad abandoned him shortly after his mom gave birth. When he was 3, his mother, in a fit of anger, broke his arm. Social services investigated, but found no wrongdoing. Shortly after he turned 8, his ever-angry mother broke his jaw. This time, social services removed him from her custody, and he lived in a series of foster homes and group houses. In school he constantly caused trouble, made poor grades, and grew angrier and angrier as he found himself shuttled from one temporary custodial place to another.
One day, a priest visited the house where Bob, now a teenager, was staying with other "unwanted" kids. The priest gave a motivational speech, telling them about God's love, and that despite their circumstances, they should value their lives. The priest said that each of you possesses a special gift, a gift you must find and use. Bob's eyes rolled toward the ceiling as the priest spoke -- after all, he'd heard this before. "If I'm so special," he thought, "who values me? Please, what 'gift' do I have?"
The priest noticed Bob's indifference, and after his talk, approached Bob quietly and asked him why he appeared to pay no attention. Bob asked the priest the very questions he'd been thinking, including, "Where's my gift?" He told the priest about his absent father, and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother. The priest said, "Your gift is that you survived. What you endured requires strength, a strength that a lot of people do not have. That is your gift."
For whatever reason, the priest's words sunk in. Bob began to work harder, and his grades improved. He went to college, got a degree in business and joined a large corporation, where he began to work his way up. He is married and has two children. He now earns a high six-figure salary and loves his life.
To Messrs. Gephardt and Frank, Bob is merely a winner in "the lottery of life." To them, Bob occupies the wrong end of the "income inequality" scale. Never mind that America remains the most upwardly mobile country in history. Or, that most rich did not start out that way. Or that, of all the qualities that go into income success, hard work remains the most important.
A great man from humble circumstances once said, "[T]here is not, of necessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. . . . The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself; then labors on his own account for awhile, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is . . . the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way for all -- gives hope to all, and . . . improvement of conditions to all. If any continue through life in the condition of the hired laborer, it is not the fault of the system, but because of either a dependent nature which prefers it, or improvidence, folly, or singular misfortune."
Barney Frank, meet Abraham Lincoln.
They are just showing their true colors. And they are not red, white, and blue.
I don't call them communists; I call them Stalinists. They're just too comfortable with their hatred and their censorship.
We start life as pure consumers, transition to being producers, and then transition to being investors.
Income Inequality is a fine issue to tackle once they've tackled Effort Inequality, Education Inequality, Delayed Gratification Inequality, Ambition Inequality, Leisure time Inequality, and the many other tradeoffs one makes in life. Sure some people have bad situations not of their making, but by and large people can control these choices.
Good Gawd, will they EVER give up this class-warfare crap?
If they really feel guilty, let these dems start with giving their OWN cash away (and not to worthless foundations and other tax dodges)
Not as long as they can continue to attract votes with the promise of other people's money.
Personal initiative and ambition provides the motivation to develop marketable skills.
Education is available to provide instruction which will help individuals with the ambition develop marketable skills.
Marketable skills in conjunction with personal ambition creates the opportunity for the individual to earn higher levels of income.
Income inequality is caused by a lack of personal ambition, IMO. Personal ambition is destroyed by the socialist programs, e.g. welfare, that give people something for nothing.
Therein lies the problem--the recipients never think of it as OPM--it's simply created out of thin air by "da gub'mint".
Putting the poorest Americans out of a job with a 40% minimum wage increase is not going to narrow income inequality.
I make way less money than a Democrat Congressman I wonder if any of them want to share with me?
HOW DARE anyone make more money than me! HOW DARE others get advanced degrees, promotions, work overtime, work holidays, work a second job/career, further their careers by higher education/technical training, take entrepreneurial risk, work 60-80 hour weeks in management or work the incredibly long hours to start/run their own successful business. HOW DARE THEM! /s
You're not just whistling Dixie. I'm a manufacturer that serves the building industry. Historically, work slows down during the holiday season. Fortunately, I'm able to keep my full crew busy with maintenance and the like during this slowdown. This will be impossible if they raise the minimum wage.
Oh, but if you have 30 percent unemployment but those who **ARE** employed are making $30 an hour, guess what?
The economy will still suck. Thanks, Dems. Why don't you admit that min wage is 1--earned by fewer and fewer people, 2--was NEVER intended as a sustenance wage, 3--only encourages people to work harder/educate themselves so they can move on to better jobs and make more money and that 4--raising min wage only makes unions, etc., clamor for higher multiples of same wage, 5--leads to higher inflation because companies have to raise prices due to higher labor costs?
There is nothing so uncommon as common sense.
Someone wrote a letter to the editor this week, that said, "he works hard for his money and it is taxed and part of that tax helps poor people that may not be able to work. Then he says, "In order for me to keep my job though, I must submit to a random urine test on occasion, if I do not pass the test I loose my job. The people who benefit from my hard work drug free with the taxes I pay, should get their welfare check if they pass a urine test and are drug free!!!!
Let's look at a set of individuals:
I knew this guy who lived with three other people in a boiling apartment while working on a loading dock making five bucks an hour.
I knew this guy who was unemployed and had so little to eat he lost 15 pounds of weight, and he wasn't overweight to begin with.
I knew this guy who put all his possessions in his friend's subcompact to drive to a new city to start a job making $19,500 a year.
I knew this guy who worked in an entry-level professional job, but money was tight, so he brought in his lunch every day while others could eat out every day.
I knew this guy who worked a journey-level professional job who could only afford a one room apartment, but had enough to do what he wanted, as long as he wasn't extravagent.
I knew this guy who worked a pretty decent professional job and has the resources to live in a good neighborhood and take vacations to Europe occasionally.
You can see these people have wildly unequal incomes. Does Barney Frank think it's a bad thing that all these people exist?
(One other minor fact: all those people are me, at different stages of my life.)
What they don't care to understand is that it frequently comes from their neighbors.
Doesn't have to.....BUT....
Communists.
All equally poor.
Yeah, that's the ticket!
each according to their needs each according to their ability.
Demercats continue to be THE problem.
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