Fairness

Yesterday the Tribune printed a piece by Chuck Collins from a group entitled Fair Economy. (I can't find it online.) This group states that it "raises awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide and tear communities apart." (Interestingly, Chuck Collins recently wrote a guest column with Bill Gates. Hmmm, guess it only tears communities apart when those concentrations support other organizations....)

Mr. Collins' thesis was that Katrina, like the Mexico City earthquakes years ago, should raise our awareness of the chasm between rich and poor. His final paragraph states:

"We should be vigilant in the coming months as we watch how our government
rebuilds the Gulf Coast. But most important, we should ask ourselves why
we personally tolerate such extreme inequalities in the richest nation on earth
and what we plan to do about it."

Well, Mr. Collins, what should we do about it? Maybe we ought to march right in to Bill's house, seize a few billion dollars worth of his Microsoft shares, and give them to poor people in New Orleans. Is that it, Mr. Collins? Or do we need to run it through several dozen government agencies first, to ensure the poor only get $.40 on the dollar?

You see, conservatives often get a knock for not being compassionate. But that's not true. Conservatives are realists. There will always be poor people. There is no system of economic distribution that ensures all will receive their bounty such that none will suffer. There isn't. And the one that keeps getting foisted on us from the left, socialism in some incarnation, merely makes us "equal" in our suffering. In other words, in the minds of those like Mr. Collins it is better if we're all poor because that's "fair." Will the left ever realize that taking resources from one and giving them to another does not work. It will not end poverty. Good intentions would not have evacuated those folks in New Orleans any faster than their own feet would have.