Redistribution of Wealth Destroys Individual Drive
by Marvin Pirila

The American concept of “freedom to prosper” rests on the belief than man’s instinctive will to succeed in a climate of liberty would result in the whole people prospering together.  The Founders believed that even the poor could lift themselves through education and individual effort to become independent and self-sufficient.

The idea was to minimize poverty, maximize prosperity, and make the entire nation rich.  The more fortunate were to help when people suffered the loss of their livelihood or became unemployed.  Those enjoying “good times” were encouraged to save in store for seemingly impending misfortunes that come to everybody someday.  Hard work, frugality, thrift, and compassion underlie the meaning of the American ethic.

Samuel Adams declared the ideas of a welfare state were unconstitutional:

“The utopian schemes of leveling [redistribution of the wealth], and a community of goods [central ownership of all the means of production and distribution], are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown.  [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional.”

Unfortunately, what Samuel Adams declared as unconstitutional is exactly what the Obama Administration and Democrats are steamrolling through America.  The ideas of taxing the rich at much higher percentages, green energy subsidies, and the universal health plan are simple mechanisms used to redistribute wealth.  In addition, while the government may not yet have “central ownership of all the means of production and distribution”, they certainly have regulated all industries to the liking of a few, for nothing more than political reasons.  For example, while our nation goes bankrupt, it sits on the most natural resources of any country in the world, shackled by regulation, political gamesmanship, and the ideologies of Obama and his cronies.

Alexander Hamilton declared, “The fabric of the American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of “The Consent of the Governed”.  The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority (Federalist Paper.) 

ObamaCare was without the consent of the people, as was the blanket NSA spying of individuals.  The targeting of opposition groups (Conservatives, Tea Party, etc.) by the EPA, Energy Department, and the IRS, is treasonous, and the worst acts of any presidency in the history of the U.S.  The targeting of U.S. citizens for no other reason than they oppose your positions is the biggest breach of duty possible.

John Adams said it clearly:  “All men are born free and independent, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.”

The Creator has imposed certain responsibilities on every human being of normal mental capacity:

• The duty not to take the life of another except in self-defense  [Abortion is murder]
• The duty not to steal or destroy the property of another [Redistribution of wealth is tantamount to theft]
• The duty to provide insofar as possible for the needs of the helpless – the sick, the crippled, the injured, the poverty-stricken [Helpless does not include those that are healthy and not trying to find work, or better their situation.  Entitlements programs, without the purpose of raising the capable individuals from their situation, is self-defeating and self-perpetuating.  Many will settle for a free check from the government rather than scraping their way out of their plight.]
• The duty to become economically self-sufficient

The redistribution of wealth brings with it many anti-free market capitalism and anti-American consequences:

1. It destroys the incentive of an industrious person to develop and improve any more property [Typical of socialist countries]
2. The industrious individual is deprived of the fruits of his labor
3. An existence of bare-subsistence living would be encouraged as the accumulation of anything would invite attack
4. As Locke expressed, a person’s property is a projection of life itself.  The person who has cultivated a farm, obtained food by hunting, carved a beautiful statue, or secured a wage by his labor, has projected his very being – the very essence of life– into that labor

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Property is the fruit of labor.  Property is desirable, is a positive good in the world.  That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.  Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently to build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence…I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can.  Some will get wealthy.  I don’t believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good.”