By: John Stossel
President Obama says he want to make society more fair. Advocates of big government believe fairness means taking from rich people and giving to others: poor people; or people who do things politicians approve of, like making “green” energy equipment (Solyndra); or old people (even rich ones) through Social Security and Medicare.
The idea that government can “make life fair” is intuitively appealing to people — at least until they think about it. I’ll try to help.
Obama says fairness requires higher taxes, but as The Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore asks, “Is it fair that the richest 10 percent of Americans shoulder a higher share of their country’s income-tax burden than do the richest 10 percent in every other industrialized nation, including socialist Sweden?”
Or as economist Art Laffer asked on my Fox Business show, is it fair that American corporations pay the highest corporate tax rate in the world?
Beyond taxes, again quoting Moore, “Is it fair that President Obama sends his two daughters to elite private schools that are safer, better-run and produce higher test scores than public schools in Washington, D.C. — but millions of other families across America are denied that free choice and forced to send their kids to rotten schools?”
Big-government politicians bemoan income inequality, but would equalizing incomes make life fair?
To many, it is intuitive that such inequality is necessarily unfair. If someone makes his income by looting the taxpayers — sure, that’s unfair. His gains are ill-gotten, and honest taxpayers are out hard-earned money. But there’s nothing unfair simply in making more money through productive work. People have a range of talents and ambitions. Some will serve consumers better than others and therefore make more money. Government should not worry about that.
It should spend its time abolishing political privileges so that people compete fairly — in the marketplace.
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