puzzle

Contents

AmericanRebus
Subject Areas

 

National Prosperity

Will America continue to prosper or are we legislating our way into an ever lowering standard of living?


Sharing Wealth

President Obama and his advisors advocate and are implementing  a drastic  reformation of society. One of the prime elements of this reformation is redistribution of the nation’s wealth.  Before we can fully grasp what these changes mean to citizens, we need to understand just what is this “wealth” that will be redistributed.

Wealth is the amount of essential items of life—food, clothing, shelter, etc.—that is in excess of actual needs. By this definition, almost everyone in America is wealthy has at least some wealth.

When you  buy a new TV while your older model still works perfectly well, both  the new and the old are forms of wealth. The older one may not be of much value to you, but there may  be  of value to someone  else. If you can find this person, you could exchange the older TV for another form of wealth (such as money). You would have added to your wealth and presumably, so would the new owner.

Trade has existed since early mankind and is an absolute requirement for civilization. Trade is what makes wealth valuable. But before we can trade, we must have goods  that are valuable to others; we have to have produced something. A man with more wheat than he can eat, has a surplus, but his excess grain is  no value unless he can trade some of it for something else he needs or wants.

Wealth does not occur, it is created. Before wealth can be shared, someone must put forth the effort to produce it. In most of the world, individuals can’t personally grow or manufacture everything they need, so we use money to swap for our needs.   The industrial revolution and other technical revolutions have made commodities so inexpensive most people around the world have improved their standards of living.

To be blunt, if you have not helped to create the wealth, you have no claim for a share of it. Of course, those truly unable to contribute need to be cared for as part of a common decency that cements our society together. In addition, all Americans are entitled to share in the essential protections provided by society through the government. These protections include: personal safety, protection from invasion, assistance in natural and man-made disasters.

Sharing is voluntary. Sharing is for all to help carry the load, it is a contribution to the common good and implies that all are working toward a common goal.

Forced sharing is nothing more than robbery and coercion.