– Francisco d’Anconia, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
– Milton Friedman
Once you accept the logical subjective theory of value, it is clear that one man’s success is not another man’s failure. In fact, to the contrary, it is his success as well. The opponents of income inequality are not judging from the viewpoint of those involved in the transaction, but those who watch and do not profit. These are people who measure their riches not in terms what they have, but in what their neighbours have. The man who measures value by such a standard soon realises that rather than making a profit of his own and rising to the level of others, it is far easier to simply confiscate the profits of those who earn more than he. In short, equality. Communism.
What these people do not realise is that he they are indeed profiting from the work of the rich. People below the poverty line in free nations live in conditions far superior to the men living in the “People’s States” of the world. Why else was East Germany forced to build a wall to prevent it’s own citizens from fleeing their equal utopia to the decadent land of the west, where income inequality abounds?
Income inequality is not evil. Far from it. Income inequality is the recognition that a man earns what he produces, no more no less. To demand that the industrialists who created this world be held as equals to the dole bludgers who leech off the rest of society, living on only what the government steals for them, is an evil far greater.
– Aristotle
Leave a comment