It's no accident that Obama dwells on the purported economic malaise as his main selling point. His solution is the Marxist one: redistribution. This is why he constantly refers to “taxing the rich” as the solution, a solution that all good Marxists long to impose on our nation. But would it really be a solution? Consider the underlying assumptions. The first assumption is that the economic pie is fixed and can be taken for granted. When Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital in the 1840’s, the industrial revolution was young and its underlying economic theories were largely unformed. Marx drew upon the agricultural themes laid down by Malthus. Wealth was indestructible land, and the income crops grew regardless of who owned the land. Therefore, why would not industrial wealth be the same: fixed and indestructible? And if “justice” in agriculture is to redistribute the land, why would not workers “owning the means of production” not be the same expression of justice?
The next assumption is the desirability of a “steady state” economy. The green movement which opposes population growth and economic activities of most kinds are the natural allies of the Marxists. Both groups strive for the mythical static economy that neither shrinks or grows, that is predictable and controllable, that is “in harmony with nature”.
But these assumptions are false and dangerous. It is no accident that most of the ardent Marxists are liberal arts majors, gleefully devoid of real economic knowledge! The typical Marxist is a professor somewhere who continually spouts off about “the workers” without owning a pair of coveralls and without calluses on his hands. With tenure, feeding at the public trough in some state university, the professor doesn’t know what he doesn’t know!
For one thing, to define justice as equality is a mistake. Not all members of society have equal gifts. If the entrepreneurial spirit and success are punished, all of society is poorer! Once the seizure of power and the redistribution is over, the economy will contract, bringing with it poverty for all. “ Equal outcomes” means all of society equally poor at the subsistence level.
The next thing the Marxists don’t get is that wealth is NOT a static fixed pie! Economies grow or die. To stick to the agricultural metaphor, entrepreneurs can, in effect, "create farmland." The wealth pie expands or contracts depending on the policies and incentives put in place. For Obama to dwell on the “haves” and the “have nots” is a fraud. With 70% of the millionaires in this country SELF MADE, the real issue is between the “doers” and the “do nots." But every member of society CAN be treated with equal dignity!
This is the fraud perpetrated on blacks in this country by the likes of Jesse Jackson. Rather than tell his flock to stay in school, to work hard and to work to improve their lives, he tells his people they are victims. The problem is “white people conspiring to keep you down." Dropping out of school, getting pregnant at 13, being content to stay generation after generation on welfare has “nothing to do with their poverty!” His solution is to march on the capital and demand that society just “give” them money, (such as the “reparations for slavery”, classic victimology!) But the promise of America is not equality of condition but equal opportunity. Until these leaders change this emphasis, blacks will remain on the bottom of the economic ladder.
The last thing the Marxists don’t understand is the American ideal, which is if you work hard, there’s no limit to what you can achieve. The “rags to riches” stories are what attract people to this great land of ours! Americans want to get ahead. Americans want to do well, they want to grow their potential, not be stuck in a static planned economy with a Marxist Party elite telling them how to live their lives.