The bottom-line on wealth inequity

Some intellectual honesty from Robert Samuelson.

Poor Aren't Poor Because Rich Are Rich

"Judged only by economic inequality, the financial crisis is a godsend. It will probably narrow the gap — though still vast — between the rich and everybody else. But what good will that do? Economic inequality also declined in the Great Depression. The country wasn't better off.

By and large, the poor aren't poor because the rich are rich. They're usually poor for their own reasons: family breakdown, low skills, destructive personal habits and plain bad luck.

The presumption implicit in the criticism of growing economic inequality is that society's income is a given and, if the rich have less, others will have more. Up to a point, that's true. The government already redistributes much income, often for the good.

During the boom years, companies might have been less lavish with top executives and slightly more generous to other workers or shareholders. Some new fortunes stem from self-dealing and financial razzle-dazzle, not the creation of real economic value. It's just desserts that some of this wealth has evaporated.

But the redistributionist argument is at best a half-truth. The larger truth is that much of the income of the rich and well-to-do comes from what they do. If they stop doing it, then the income and wealth vanish. No one gets it. It can't be redistributed because it doesn't exist. Everyone's poorer."

I have to say that if there is one thing I am most tired of working with those who do not feel successful in their lives, it is the constant pretending like their choices are not having consequences, often ones they do not like, in their own lives.

And the big one is the choice to blow off the education, self-discipline, and work involved with building wealth, long term.

I don't care, anymore, how much people bullshit on this one, anymore. I'm contributing something real with my life. And I don't care how many people pretend that they are doing more than they are to contribute.

I want my life to create something real.