When rich people get enough

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/us/politics/26budget.html

It's time to stop the sophomoric war against the rich as if we just sat in our first lecture given by a burnt-out hippie professor whose claim to fame is being able to recite Ginsberg's poem -- Howl -- backwards.

Get over it -- some people make a lot of money, but, the rich aren't going to sit idly by and fork up the cash to pay for liberal schemes. What the state is going to do is chase money out of the economy and the country. If you want that money to help the economy, then leave the rich alone and allow them to produce and create more wealth. Unless a rich person has used government ot gain favor and protection, what they've earned is their good fortune -- it doesn't take a nickel out of anyone's pocket. Wealth is created and the more wealth the rich create, the more wealth there is in the economy.

However, if the government bandits try to steal it, the rich will prevent this theft in as many ways as they can, thereby reducing the useful power of the wealth. The power of wealth left alone to create more wealth creates economic growth. Wealth for the most part is directed into investments where there is the greatest return, and if the government is not incentivizing wealth to flow uneconomically where the politics lead, then wealth usually flows to meet demand and needs. This also creates jobs -- real jobs -- jobs that will last for awhile, not until the road is completed or the bridge is built.

The rich are our friends in a recession, especially if they can invest in good deals and buy low -- if they can count on stability and a return on investment when the market picks up. The rich know how to create wealth and economic growth -- it's what they do -- they're good at it. Who do you trust to turn the economy around -- rich people or politicians? No, really, think about it for a minute.

"But, but, they have so much money -- why not just take it from them and spread it around?" Well, mainly because they want let you, for long. So, what're you going to do? Lock them up and take it? Appeal to their good nature and hope they give it up willingly -- so that politicians can waste it? Would you give it up to Frank and Pelosi, Reid, Schumer? Really? I don't think so -- and if you did, you'd be delusionally naive. This is the real world, not a utopian novel about a communitarian garden of love.

If we don't quit kicking the rich around, they'll find other places to make more money, or just keep what they have, hide it somewhere safe and sail the globe for awhile.

If I had influence in a medium size country which is struggling right now, I'd push the government to offer a large, unused chunk of the country to capitalists who want a free market zone and rent it at a good price, then let them do what they want to do -- call it Filthyrichland.

Seriously, rich is what it is, neither good nor evil. There are evil poor people and evil rich people, and the money doesn't determine the morals. Rich people build things, create new things, invest in "stuff", provide services and as a result the wealth is spread around -- but it's spread around voluntarily through productive, useful activity, not at the point of a gun. And, yes, there are evil rich people who do bad things with their money, but in a free society we don't have to buy what they're selling, there's a court system for fraud and they usually meet justice, but for the most part, the rich grow the economy and it helps everyone.

This is the simplified version, but, damn, it's not rocket science. It's one thing to collect taxes to pay for government services -- it's another thing for government to attempt to control the economy then gouge the rich to pay for the takeover, incompetence, waste and corruption. This will ultimately sap the power of real wealth in this country.  What will we do when there are no more rich people to kick around? We'll be kicking our own asses for being so jealous.

If we want to spread the wealth -- end corporate protection and welfare and let others have a shot at it.

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