BETWEEN THE LINES: Clearing up a gross misunderstanding
Former Republican presidential candidate and political commentator Pat Buchanan wrote a column last week and the thesis bears repeating. I believe it was Adolph Hitler who said if one repeats a lie often enough, it eventually will be perceived as the truth. In this golden age of technology, the media determines what issues to press forward. Those issues it deems unimportant get relegated to the back pages of the newspaper, or worse yet, ignored altogether.
How else can one explain the close scrutiny that conservative figures such as Clarence Thomas and Herman Cain receive on sexual allegations, when Bill Clinton gets a free pass on real ones?
The latest results of their slanted journalistic perspective are showing up across the nation in the Occupy Wall Street fiasco, as they buy into the rich not paying their fair share. In so doing, these protesters, who have nothing better to do than camp out on public property and disrupt local businesses, are implying the top 1 percent, who already pay 40 percent of the tax revenues, need to dig deeper into their pockets.
That the bottom half of taxpayers pay little or no taxes apparently does not bother them. I, for one, am tired of hearing about the inequities of our system. If the media elites will take the time to really study our tax code, they will discover it grossly favors the poor. The lower incomes not only pay no taxes, but they receive tax credits that generate tax returns to the tune of thousands of dollars per taxpayer.
These returns coupled with free education, food stamps, health insurance, child-care aid and housing subsidies constitute a substantial foundation. As Buchanan points out in his article, the word "equal" is not mentioned in the Constitution, Bill of Rights or the Federalist Papers. The use of the word equality did not come until the 14th Amendment after the Civil War, and then it meant equal treatment under the law.
When Thomas Jefferson penned those famous words, “All men are created equal,” he was not talking about equal results, but man’s inalienable God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As Buchanan accurately comments, it was what the French Revolution, Bolshevik Revolution, Mao’s Revolution in 1949, Castro’s Revolution of 1959 and Pol Pot’s Revolution of 1975 claimed to be about.
History has clearly proven that talk about equality does not bring it about. In every conflict mentioned above, the end result was nothing more than replacing the old regime with a new one far more brutal and tyrannical than the previous one. Unfortunately, power to the people often translates into more power for the government.
There are many causes for inequity because not only is talent unequally distributed, but how society values it magnifies those differences. Is it fair society values the skills of an NFL player higher than a medical doctor? In addition, people with equal talent will have different monetary results because of the varying effort and dedication they put into their job.
What is evident is in good economic times people are less troubled by this inequity of income. As Buchanan observes, as troubled economic times occur, this disparity turns into resentment and envy.
What is tragic is too many students are moving through our public schools and graduating with little or no useful understanding of basic history and economics. Consequently, they are easily won over by political rhetoric in the absence of facts as they buy into these class warfare diversionary tactics, which will result in nothing more than increasing the size and authority of government at the expense of our individual freedom.
Laughlin is a Christian Libertarian. He is an economist, teacher, father, husband and most recently a grandfather. He has written a weekly column for The Tribune for 12 years. He and his wife Gina reside in Meadowlakes. To contact him, email ablaughlin@nctv.com. He is an independent columnist, not a staff member, and his views do not necessarily reflect those of The Tribune or its parent company.