The road to middle class evisceration and greater poverty is paved with good intentions.
We have heard incessantly of the widening gap between rich and poor. President Barack Obama and his minions have been publicly bemoaning it vowing to address it - and even warning of violence should it not be solved.
Ending income inequality" is a fundamental tenet of the President Barack Obama-embraced and endorsed Social Justice Movement. Social Justice" certainly sounds good - but it aint:
The Social Justice Movement is at war with classical liberalism which defines equality as the equality of all individuals before the law irrespective of class or any other collective identity. In modern terms the conflict between these two worldviews is similar to the conflict between equality of opportunity" and equality of outcome" which can only be guaranteed and enforced by some structure of authority.
The Social Justice Movement endorses socialism as a means of redressing the alleged evils of capitalism and producing a programmatic equality that it acknowledges will be purchased at the price of individual liberty and require the manufacture of what totalitarian governments have called the New Man."
Not exactly a free market approach to things. Its spread(ing) the wealth around" - on stilts.
There is currently underway an Obama Administration war...(on) equality of all individuals before the law irrespective of class or any other collective identity."
ObamaCare waivers abound for favored collective identities." Unions have received more than half of the thousands of exemptions from it. The Congress that foisted the law upon us just received a pass. The list of Democrat-friendlies who have special indemnity is unbelievably long.
Unfavored collective identities" - Tea Partiers and Conservatives - were set upon by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other agencies. Receiving exclusive-to-them scrutiny negative attention and abuse.
If you want some green" energy" government money its far better to be an Obama donor than to submit a viable proposal. Around 80 of these loans have gone to the Presidents political supporters. As of last October at least 50 of those campaign-contributing recipients were either bankrupt or well on the way.
All of this is woefully unequal treatment before the law.
Founding Father John Adams declared that for our Constitutional republic to endure we must remain:
A government of laws and not of men."
But one man - the President - has time and again on his whim ignored altered or created entirely new law. Beyond the ObamaCare exemptions the President has willfully missed half of the laws mandated deadlines.
The President unilaterally gutted welfare reform. And education law. And illegal drugs law. He doesnt like some immigration laws so he chooses not to enforce them. And sues those that do. He imposes the DREAM Act - even though it has never actually passed Congress.
Presto-ing law out of thin air is a favorite of this President. Cap and Trade never passed - but were getting it anyway. So too Card Check. He engaged us in military action in Libya without Congressional authorization - want to bet Syria is next?
The Presidents been particularly pernicious in the Technology sector.
He imposed Spread the Wealth Around" cell phone network-sharing mandates. Hes recently mentioned a new unilateral $60-per-cell-phone-per-year tax in the hopes of increasing government school Internet speed. This despite the fact we already have for years been paying a now 15.5 cell phone tax to connect schools and libraries and 98 of Americans already have broadband-speed access.
Still open is an Obama Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order to reclassify the Internet. Which would unilaterally move the now lightly-regulated Web into the landline phone uber-regulatory superstructure. A huge power grab - including the Administration granting itself the power to tax the Net.
Then theres Network Neutrality. An all-encompassing Internet imposition the Obama Administration illegally granted itself on December 21 2010. This despite a previous FCC attempt to inflict it that was unanimously rejected by the D.C. Circuit Court.
(This same Court on September 9 hears oral arguments to undo this unlawful iteration. Heres hoping....)
Lets put all these micro actions into macro perspective. This is the government again and again usurping huge new swaths of authority. Without any pretext or predictability. The private sector never knows when the next anvils are going to fall - so they stop frozen in regulatory anticipatory amber.
The people with money sit on it. They dont start new businesses or expand existing ones. Many start downsizing. Their amassed inactive fortunes accrue ever so slightly. The rich get ever so slightly richer.
(If the Federal Reserve is pumping $85 billion a month in fake money into the stock market - as President Obamas is - the rich do better still.)
The people without money pay a far greater price. To advance their lots in life they need the people with money to start and expand businesses. The government-induced idleness hurts the rich some - but the un-rich much much more.
The have-nots economic statuses rapidly deteriorate. The greater the depth and length of the governments hyper-activity the more of these regulatory victims fall below the middle class fault line into poverty. And the less chance the impoverished have of advancing their way up and out. The poor get poorer - and much more populous.
Government is a wedge - driven between the wealthy and everyone else. The bigger government gets the wider gets the gap between the haves and the have-nots. The haves stay about the same or advance a little. Meanwhile more and more of the have-nots have less and less. Just the opposite of the (stated) intent of the Social Justice do-gooders. You want proof?
Rich-Poor Gap Widens to Most Since 1967 as Income Falls
Obama Calls Income Gap Wrong - After Widening It
Research by University of California economist Emmanuel Saez shows that since the Obama recovery started in June 2009 the average income of the top 1 grew 11.2 in real terms through 2011. The bottom 99 in contrast saw their incomes shrink by 0.4.
The road to middle class evisceration and greater poverty is paved with good intentions.