Speakin’ Out

Speakin’ Out The concept of the American dream has largely been replaced by the piece-of-pie myth. Rather than believing that individual productivity produces benefits for us all, many are captive to what is essentially a Marxist concept - the economy is a set size, a pie to be divided up by hook or crook. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ In this view, the “haves” are seen as obtaining their wealth at the expense of the “have-nots,” therefore the “have-nots” need to somehow take it back. This false view of the world and of economics is running rampant around the world these days, and is not simply relegated to those who profess to adhere to the views of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao or a combination of any of the above. The piece-of-the-pie view has given us, among other things, entitlements, the welfare state, corporate welfare, and revenge politics. And in my days as a parking lot attendant on the streets of downtown Chicago, the terms “getting over,” “a hustle,” “stickin’ it to the man,” concepts around long before Marxism, were a few of the terms one would hear, used to describe the illegal piece-of-the-pie activities of thievery and fencing (buying stolen property to be quickly resold) which makes up a large part of the underground economy. When we hear a candidate tell voters that electing them means people can finally get revenge, watch out! They see the government and taxpayers’ money simply as something to be divided up, with the only way to replenish it being higher taxes and more borrowed money. And while they say it will be divided up among the people, what happens is that the elected official lives high off the hog while the people who voted them in face increasing joblessness and poverty. So with so much attention devoted to dividing up the “pie,” no attention is given to promoting the growth of business and industry, and in this situation, the economy really does become a pie of diminishing size, and people at all economic levels continue to see diminishing returns from their productive activity. An economy is not a fixed amount to be divided up. Rather, it is something that continues to grow as long as private enterprise and personal entrepreneurship are allowed to flourish. Rich people always make more people rich on the way to their prosperity, they don’t cause more poverty. Poverty can be defined as a condition in which people are unable or unwilling to hook up to the economy and be a part of it. A neighborhood or a community in decline is not a product of someone becoming wealthy at their expense. It has somehow become disconnected from the overall economy. The problem of a community in decline is not solved by government handouts but by finding a way to connect the individuals and/or the community to the economy at large.