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Liberals view income disparity as social injustice, proposing to remedy the income gap by taxing higher income people and giving the money to lower income people. The premise for such action is that rich people have more money than they need and poor people are entitled to that surplus.

The state of Maryland has the nation’s highest median family income of $69,202. It is nearly twice the state of Mississippi’s median family income of $36,646. Using the logic of the redistributionists, that income gap is unfair and unjust and the only way to lift Mississippi out of poverty is to tax the Terps.

Now, I’m sure that once the Terp Tax is enacted those Marylanders will work a lot harder knowing that the money they no longer keep for themselves will go to someone who needs it, don’t you? And Mississippians will work harder too, just to show their appreciation to those Terps who leveled their playing field, don’t you think?

Not to mention that famous 1.6 Keynesian multiplier that kicks in anytime you take money away from one person and give it to someone else. No, no – it really works. I took a dollar from my wife’s purse and told the guy at the Kwik Trip it was worth a buck sixty. The only thing was, I couldn’t prove it was her dollar, so next time I have to get it notarized by a mental health professional, he said. That’s cool; I didn’t know I had to do that.

Yes, taxing the Terps would solve everything. You don’t suppose anyone would move out of Maryland once the Terp Tax kicks in, do you? If we equilibrate all the states, then the Terp gets to write a check for $18,991 while his cousin right across the border in West Virginia deposits a $12,786 transfer payment. Can’t imagine that would cause any family stress, would it?

Well, you see where this all is going. If you think taking the wealth of one state to give to another by force is a dumb idea, you are right. It does not get any smarter if it is county to county, city to city, or house to house. Taxing the rich, whoever that even means nowadays, will not make the poor richer. It will only incent the rich to avoid, evade, move, or to simply quit producing.

And subsidizing the poor does not change the factors that caused their poverty – it would be nice if it were that simple. The people of Mississippi are not poor because the people of Maryland are rich.

The only people who prosper when forced wealth transfers occur are the people doing the transferring. It is no accident that the top two ranks in median income are now locked down by the company town of Washington, D.C. and its suburb-state, Maryland. The redistribution industry – the U.S. Government – is thriving.

Karl Marx described the essence of his socialist philosophy, “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Can you think of a more concise description of our nation’s tax and welfare framework? Can you find justification for either progressive taxation or entitlement transfer payments in our Constitution?

In the months to come, Republicans and Democrats will once again posture and preen over tax policy, and journalists will read partisan sound bites with no earthly clue what they mean and call it news. Pick your victim and villain – billionaires and paupers will work fine in either role – and you will have no problem finding “proof” on the internet that some other guy is not pulling his weight. About all you will really prove is that data is not information.

Over the past decade, our government has nearly doubled while our median income has remained flat. The former explains the latter; in fact, there is not a lot more we need to know to judge the wisdom of the Keynesian prescriptions that President Obama and Chairman Bernanke continue to promise will restore our prosperity. They haven’t and they won’t because they are wrong.

Our prosperity will only be restored when we produce more. Our median income will rise when our work adds more value. We earn more when we are worth more, not the other way around. You will make more if you can weld a pressure vessel than if you can weld a bike frame; more still if you can weld a leaking gas pipeline; even more if you can weld it underwater.

And taking more money from the folks who own the underwater welding firm will not increase their welders’ incomes. Giving it to Pakistan will not trigger some fictitious magic multiplier effect here in this country. Printing fiat money at the Fed that is given to Goldman Sachs to lend to the U.S. Treasury who bails out Citibank so they can pay billionaires’ bonuses that are taxed to fund government is not the way to fund government, even if Krugman says so.

Our real billionaires – Buffet, Gates, Zuckerman, Whitman, Jobs, Turner – did not start out that way; and Government did not select them. We bought their products; they are rich because we decided to make them so. I gave Steve Jobs a few hundred dollars for an iPad; if I wanted that money to go to ACORN, I would have given it to them myself. I don’t need President Obama to do it for me; more importantly I don’t want President Obama to do it for me.

Why not take the billionaires money? For the same reason we should not take it from all the Terps of Maryland - because it is their money. There is a commandment against such things. We should not kill them, either, or commit adultery with them, or covet their house, or covet their things, or bear false witness against them, or worship them.

We should buy their stuff, or not, as we see fit. Billionaires, like Terps, are our fellow Americans, not some cows to be milked.


“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.

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Comment by Tim Nerenz on October 3, 2011 at 7:22am
Wowza!
Comment by Morry Markovitz on October 3, 2011 at 4:59am

SORRY but this is part THREE.

My post keeps getting cut off.    You'll have to read this post and the 2 following it in reverse order.  My apologies.  I hope you find the unique perspective of interest, and of use in devastating liberals.   Here's the finale:

---------------------------

You're not a "noble savage" but you are a savage, and a pretty darned moronic one at that.

 

OK, down to brass tacks now:

 

You, sir or madam, are an advocate against humanity, human intelligence, and everything man has accomplished in rising above the law of the jungle.  You are a throwback, not of a century or even a milennium, but a throwback by eons and ages.   You see someone who has what you want, or what someone you like wants, and your moral idea -- MORAL, I emphasize -- for obtaining it is ... just seize it -- like an animal would or like a human infant would try to do.  You want to re-introduce the law of the jungle back into civilization, which was created to escape that very law of the jungle.    You want us to regress back to even further than the operating moral code of a human child.  You want men to adopt the moral principles governing the behavior of human infants and of wild jungle beasts.     You want to legalize, to incorporate into the laws of OUR HUMAN civilization, provisions which will enable the moral philosophy of "gimme" to be exercised and enforced by law. You want to live in OUR HUMAN civilization, but demand that you be allowed to behave like an animal.  And worse:  And coward that you are, you want to use OUR LEGAL SYSTEM to force SOMEONE ELSE to use THEIR fangs to do your dirty work for you so you won't have to see yourself as the barbaric savage you actually are.    You want to swing open our doors to the jungle, and welcome it back in to destroy the civilization that HUMAN BEINGS have created.  

 

Do you really dare to think of yourself as human?  

 

Oh, that's right, I guess you do. For a moment there I forgot how stupid you are.

 

 

 

Comment by Morry Markovitz on October 3, 2011 at 4:50am

DARN.   The last part of my post was cut off again.   Here's the end, to finish up my partial post just below.  Read the below part first, then come back here for the end.

 

A newborn human infant operates on the law of the jungle too.   When he sees what he wants, he reaches for it and if nothing interferes to stop him he takes it.   Just like an animal.  Just like a liberal/regressive.    He is not yet a full human being, just like a liberal/regressive.    He still has all his non-human animal attributes, but has yet to develop his uniquely HUMAN ANIMAL behaviors, knowledge, and ideas. Just like a liberal/regressive.   He has yet to develop his human MIND.   Indeed, also like a liberal/regressive, an infant's mind hasn't yet progressed to the fully HUMAN level.  Someday it will, assuming he doesn't have liberal/regressive parents.

 

HUMAN parents teach their infant how much better it is FOR HIM,HIMSELF and for EVERYONE around him who are his potential friends and assets, if he can develop the ability to see beyond the range of the immediate "now" moment in which other animals perpetually live, and look into the future, long range, and THINK, and plan for improving his lot and the welfare of everyone in society simultaneously,rather than stagnating at the level of an animal who lives today in the same way and at the same level as he did 10,000 years ago -- and who will remain there eternally.    We teach our infants how to PROGRESS steadily by understanding the relationship of the present to the future, and that it is often in a HUMAN being's own best interest to give up or "trade" a current need or want for much greater rewards tomorrow and next month and next year.   And that to be able to live in such a world of hope, ever increasing knowledge, ever-lengthening lifespan, ever-improving health, and ever improving conditions of every stripe, he must respect the full rights of others who share those goals, he must regard them not as objects which may be holding something he wants now, but as equals to himself, with the same human rights,which he must respect if he expects them to respect his under a moral code which would never work for animals, but which is the ONLY code that will work for a HUMAN BEING if he chooses to be a full human being, to actualize his potential, and to rise above the reflexive, instinctual "gimme NOW" level of a jungle beast or a newborn human infant or a liberal/regressive.

 

It is PROFOUNDLY IRONIC that those who call themselves "progressive" advocate a MORAL philosophy what amounts to a monstrous REGRESSION, demanding that we return to the morality NOT of a human adolescent or even a human child, but to the morality and ethics of a beast in the jungle.     It is anti-human, it is anti-civilization, it is anti-HUMANE, it is anti-INTELLECT, it is anti-MIND it is anti-LIFE and it is anti-PEACEFUL HUMAN CIVILIZATION WITH MUTUAL RESPECT AMONGST ALL GENUINELY CIVILIZED INDIVIDUALS, who prefer the UNIQUELY HUMAN laws of civilization to the law of the jungle.  And need I add: it is ANTI-PROGRESS.  It is in fact, a regression all the way back to the beginnings, the absolutely most extremely regressive idea anyone could possibly conceive.  Back to the time BEFORE human beings even arrived on this earth.  Back to total chaos, and LITERAL "dog eat dog."    That's the incredible irony of its advocates calling themselves "progressives."   It would be hilarious if it weren't so stupid, and so frightening that people with advanced college degrees can be so abjectly ignorant, and so incredibly STUPID.   Come to think of it, the stupidity part of it actually is believable.   Isn't it obvious what a necessity abject stupidity is for someone to advocate seriously the savage ethics of thejungle as the ideal moral and practical base for human civilization?  C'mon, Mr. Liberal/Regressive, admit it.   You're not a "noble savage"

Comment by Morry Markovitz on October 3, 2011 at 4:42am

Here's my response to the liberal/regressive:

 

Your "tax the rich" idea and the idea of redistributing wealth is so intellectually brilliant you can actually boil it down to one single word without losing its full essence.  That word is:  "Gimme."    

 

You want it, you think you need it, there it is in someone else's possession, so just take it.     Just "gimme."   You want, I have, so you feel you have some kind of moral right just to take it from me.   I have 5 potatoes, you have one, so just grab a couple of mine.  Wonderful moral idea.   An absolutely brilliant and creative solution to not having something you want. Worthy of an Einstein.   What a brain you liberal/regressives have to have to think of such a complex solution for yourself. 

 

No wonder you have only 1 potato.   You've gotta be a moron to call a philosophy that belongs in the prehistoric jungle, and which comes straight from the jungle, "progressive."

 

See anything you need anywhere in someone's hands or garage or pocket?   Take it.     WOW, what a creative leap.  What an admirable moral system must underlie that idea.   It's probably so complex we've just gotta  interview the many thousands of experienced experts who have lived by that rule and now occupy the prison system.    It amounts to legalizing crime, the crime of theft, which all progressives clearly respect as a lovable and moral trait in a wise and admirable human being like their very barbaric selves.   You think you have a right to a lifetime of complete and total care.  Well,  OK.    How about this:  we'll set up a nice clean prison cell for you, too.   That was a joke.   I know you really don't want to spend your life in a cell.   So I understand why you advocate LEGALIZING your criminal activities.

 

When an animal wants something, it takes it.    When a tiger is hungry, if he sees a litter of squirrel pups he eats them alive.   If he sees a lion cub eating part of a recent kill, he takes it from the cub.    It's called the law of the jungle.   IT IS IN ORDER TO BANISH THAT LAW FROM HIS LIFE THAT MAN CREATED CIVILIZATION.     A lone Tarzan in the jungle would have to live by that law too.  

 

But we do NOT live in the jungle.   We live together in man-made, man-created groups.  And these places are NOT just collections of bricks and wood, but the result of ideas, of laws, of moral principles that men agree to live by in order to graduate from the jungle to the benefits of civilization, and in order to realize their highest potential as human beings in peace, without the threat of being eaten by a wild animal or otherwise destroyed by some inhuman liberal/regressive jungle animal like you.    We acknowledge the rights of all men, regardless of their brute muscle power and we do the uniquely MAN thing, we live according to our IDEAS of what is right and wrong for ALL of us as human beings.      We RESPECT each others' existence and rights.   We develop detailed, rigorous thinking into documents like a Constitution.   We don't live by "take, and ye shall receive."  We don't live by the law of the jungle.   We chose to rise above that, we escaped from it, because . . . we are HUMAN beings and the last thing we need is to drag back into our magnificent creation -- civilization -- the very thing we sought to banish when we created civilization:  being subjected to the jungle's moral code of  "Gimme."

 

If you don't like our system, go back to the jungle where your morality will fit right in.  Then you can relax and be comfy in your own kind of world.   You won't be "a stranger and afraid in a world you never made," or be constantly reminded of your inferior animalistic nature by all those superior HUMANS around you who know how to deal with reality better than an animal like you does.

 

A newborn human infant operates on the law of

Comment by USARogue on October 2, 2011 at 12:02am

 

The biggest deception is that the Liberal Progressives want tax rates increased. This is just the delusion they want us to believe.

Liberal Progressives don't care what the tax rates are. What they do care about is the fact that after you pay your taxes, even if they are raised, you have more money left over than they do. You see, the truth behind social and economic justice has nothing to do with fairness. It's all about equality. They want everyone to be equal. Equal opportunity didn't work as well as they wanted so now they need a new way to equalize or level the playing field.

It doesn't matter to them if you work harder, took risks with your idea, time, money and life, they feel you owe them more and more. If you make 2X the amount of money they do you should pay an amount of taxes so you have what they have left after they pay their taxes. Or, as is the case with most Liberal Progressives, don't pay taxes at all. 

This is what the elitists from the hallowed halls of intelligentsia tell them, so it must be right. The Barrack Obama's of the world tested their hypothesis in the teacher's lounge at Harvard. All the other professor's agreed with him in his socialist Liberal Progressive utopia so it must be plausible even though it has never worked before. These elitists are the ones who have read many books on the subject so they know better how things in life work than we do. If they wrote a book they're revered even more as an authority. None of them ever created a business or created any commerce, but they read a book on how to do it. None of them ever worked 16 hours a day and worried themselves to sleep about their business, but they read a book about it.

This is why they can run the country into the ground and the lemmings will still follow them.

This is the delusion of the Liberal mind.

Comment by Ray Marks on September 29, 2011 at 6:25am
Fear the turtle!
Comment by Chris Bee on September 28, 2011 at 9:49pm

I will be bit boring but do not forget all these people in healthcare (which I am best familiar with) who are contributing nothing to patient care, yet draw very nice salaries.  Just in case you are wondering why is healthcare so expensive and it's cost so hard to control. 

No, adding more penpushers, as suggested by obumacare, would not help.

So many problems, so little time, so few truly smart executives. 

Can we save Titanic? 

Comment by Victoria Knox on September 27, 2011 at 12:03pm
One reason the median salaries in MD are so high is the number of federal employees who work in DC . Those public union salaries far outstrip white collar jobs in the private sector.
Comment by Dana Lynn Agnew on September 26, 2011 at 3:57pm
Wonderfully crafted, a simple, understandable explanation of how things DON'T work.  However, as simple as it may be to people who really want to understand, you can't overcome the fact that you can't convince an idiot that he is wrong when he really, really wants to be right.  Damn the facts, the "moral high ground" doesn't concern itself with the truth, only it's own intentions.  Good luck, fellow naysayers.  They don't care that the emperor is naked, only that he sounds good.
Comment by Doug Nicholson on September 26, 2011 at 3:45pm
Jeez, I wish I could write this well! Great piece, Tim. Thanks.

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