INEQUALITY OF WHAT?
By Russell Turner
Of all of the laws that have ever been written, the 10 commandments from the Bible have to be the best. Among those is the commandment to not covet, in today’s America we definitely need to have a refresher course on resisting the temptation to want something that belongs to someone else.
I was taught to be thankful for what I have and not to be jealous of someone who has more possessions than I do. As long as a person makes his money honestly and does not cheat someone for it, we should congratulate him or her for his or her success. In today’s society too many of our politicians have exploited the dark emotion of jealously to gain votes in the next election cycle.
In a recent comment our president was quoted as saying he pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.” While that idea may sound good on the surface, in reality it is nothing but a way to garner the votes of a segment of society that have been conditioned to believe that they are victims of someone who may have ten cents more than they do.
Our system of freedom and liberty is the best ever devised by man. The success or failures we face in life are mainly determined by the decisions and choices that we ourselves make. It is virtually impossible to have a system where everyone is paid exactly the same. To have income equality first you would have to have equality of effort. Most self-made successful people understood the need to control the desire for instant gratification; they also developed a habit of working a little more and playing a little less. All of the decisions that we make will have a direct impact on the fortunes that we will experience.
Maybe too many of us think that sometime in our lives we will win the lottery, but I have found that the odds of that happening are pretty low. But the odds of becoming successful become much better if we are willing to study and make a better grade in school. Many of the basic concepts of reading and math must be learned early or it can become a lifelong disability. Having some fun is necessary for a healthy outlook on life, but if we decide to go partying with our friends every night more than likely we won’t build the nest egg to start a business or prepare for a rainy day.
I believe it was Winston Churchill who made the comment about it being impossible to lift a bucket off of the ground while standing in it. The same principle applies to income equality, until there is a way to have equality of effort it is impossible to have equality of income. The politicians engaging in all of this class warfare are doing nothing but dividing our nation and encouraging covetness. During the upcoming presidential campaign we Americans had better start understanding the role of effort in the American Dream.
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