President Obama's new economic plan contains increased tax rates for upper-income individuals and increased benefits for middle- and lower-income earners. We have had a system for decades that offers services available only to the lower class while the upper class picked up the tab. This trend was slightly reversed over the last 20 years, but the President appears to be putting us back on this path. It is, all but in name, the redistribution of wealth.
Many proponents of spreading the wealth around have good intentions. The idea of more or total economic equality seems appealing to a cross-section of our population. However, such notions are in complete conflict with the ideas of equality before the law (which is the basis of liberty) and have real economic consequences for our society. They threaten the freedom our forefathers bought for us in their sacrifices and hold the potential to decimate our market system that has been the engine of our affluence. Proponents constantly crusade in favor of abstract notions of "social justice" or "economic justice." But what is true justice?
Justice in the Western world grew out of conflicts between competing groups. Groups that were in power sought to maintain their power and advance themselves at the expense of everyone else in society. As opposing groups exerted their own power and independence, they demanded equal treatment. Hence, universal codes were written that applied to everybody regardless of where they were assigned in society. In twelfth-century England, King Henry II tried to consolidate absolute rule in England by weakening any obstacles to his power. The nobles revolted and when King John (Henry II's son) was defeated, he was forced to sign the Magna Carta, which guaranteed a few basic freedoms and privileges. This was the first time the absolute power of a monarch was officially restricted, and it led to the adoption of similar documents that guaranteed universal freedoms. The rule of law was established to protect people from the domination by their fellow man and to restrict competing interests from plundering one another. The execution of justice ensured everybody's life and private property were secured. Thus, the English tradition of liberty was born and laid the foundations for our Constitution.
However, later arose a new concept that violated the principle of equality before the law: the redistribution of wealth. Justice is supposed to be blind and laws are meant to apply to everyone regardless of race, religion, gender, or economic status. Taking from the rich to give to everyone else is nothing other than economic discrimination. When the law is meant to apply differently to someone who has a lot of money than someone who doesn't, it is not a just law.
Redistributing wealth is not only detrimental to people whose right to private property is being infringed, but it also threatens the common good. The reason upper-income earners got to the top was because they offered things that we liked. Bill Gates got to where he is because he gave us Windows. If we tried to eliminate the disparities in wealth, we would be taking away the incentives of the people who give the most to society. On the whole, taking away or diminishing the opportunity to advance one's self would stagnate the economy by removing the impetus of wealth creation and everyone would suffer.
The process of taxing the rich more to provide benefits that they could not claim represents the triumph of the interests of one faction over the other and threatens the prosperity of our nation. In America, we do have majority rule, and the redistributive aspects of our system were passed democratically, but our Constitution was not intended to allow even a majority faction to infringe on the rights of the minority. The father of our Constitution, James Madison, warned of the dangers that factions posed to the rights of the people and the common good and noted that a majority faction is most dangerous. A democracy with no limits on what it is allowed to do is not a free society but merely what Alexis de Tocqueville termed "democratic despotism." If we desire to be a just society, then we should demand people be treated equally regardless of how wealthy they are.
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