Consider one conundrum in American politics. Income inequality has been increasing, according to standard statistics. Yet most Americans do not seem very perturbed by it [snip]Several thoughts:
It's a widespread assumption in some affluent circles that ordinary Americans are seething with envy because they can't afford to shop regularly at Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue. My sense is that most Americans just don't care. They're reasonably happy with what they've got, and would like a little more.
1) The rich people—doctors, real estate investors, lawyers, CEO’s—whom we know by and large continue to work very hard even after they have purportedly “made it.” We’ve come across a few goof-offs, but even in those cases they earned their life of leisure by building successful businesses and selling them.
2) Rich people have sorrows, too. Money can alleviate but not eliminate cancer, family strife, and substance abuse.
3) The unemployment rate of about 10% means that 90% of the people who desire work are employed. And most of the working aspire to be rich, too. They want to amass wealth and preserve a system that will secure, not redistribute it.
4) Leftists call receipts from capital “exploitation,” or at best “unearned.” This view is the opposite of the experience of most Americans, who accumulate property and capital through savings; deferred gratification is not vice, but virtue, as are the fruits of capital in the form of dividends and interest.
5) Americans do resent payments for “services” when there’s non-performance. Real estate appraisers who don’t appraise, sanitation workers who won’t clear the roads, or tenured professors who don’t teach are now the subject of opprobrium.
It may well be that in 2010 we saw not only the balancing of the political scales, but the righting of cultural norms as well. © 2011 Stephen Yuen
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