Obama: Robin of the Hood
We all recall the exchange between Obama and Joe the Plumber when Obama blurted out his "share the wealth" philosophy. To be exact, Obama said, "it's not that I want to punish your success – I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you – that they’ve got a chance at success too."
If you want to live in a country that really cares about the poor and takes everything from the rich, then visit Cuba.
Socialists think that the only way a person becomes rich is by stealing from the poor and so to make sure the poor get their fair share they force the rich person to divide up the pie more evenly. Never mind that the rich person created the pie in the first place or that the pie is not a fixed size. But doling out a fair share to everyone assumes that everyone deserves a fair share and that no one can get a larger share by dint of harder work or more creative abilities.
That reminded me of a speech given by Ronald Reagan on 7 Jun 1957:
PBS, Commencement Address at Eureka College
There are many well-meaning people today who work at placing an economic floor beneath all of us so that no one shall exist below a certain level or standard of living, and certainly we don't quarrel with this. But look more closely and you may find that all too often these well-meaning people are building a ceiling above which no one shall be permitted to climb...
America is one of the most Capitalistic countries in the world. Socialists like to cry that in America the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. But is that true?
Actually the poorest ⅕ of the country spends exactly what a middle class household spent in the early 1970's after adjusting for inflation. That's right, the poor got richer in the past generation. They did not work harder for that better living nor did they get smarter or discover the cure for cancer. The got richer because trickle down actually works.
Here's something to consider [Heritage Foundation]:
- Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
- Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
- Snooty Europeans may look down their noses at America but our poor live better than their middle class: The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
- Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
- Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
- As a group, America's poor are far from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children and, in most cases, is well above recommended norms.
Are there homeless and truly destitute in this country? Surely there are but not in the numbers liberals would have us believe. And if liberals would stop throwing money at poverty programs there would be fewer poor people in this country.
Our poor live better than the middle class in Europe because we do not put a ceiling on what the rich can earn.
Of course that could change once Obama is elected - then every American will one day live just like the middle-class in Europe - that is, like the poor in America live now. It's only fair.
