Monday, November 7, 2011

Hsieh PJM OpEd: In Praise of Capitalist Inequality

The 11/6/2011 PJ Media has published my latest OpEd, "In Praise of Capitalist Inequality".

My theme is that the economic inequality that the "Occupy Wall Street" protestors oppose is not something to be condemned, but to be celebrated. Here is the opening:
For several weeks now, the Occupy Wall Street protestors in New York City and around the country have been demanding "economic justice," which includes a mishmash of leftist goals including universal health care, forgiveness of student loan debt, and higher taxes on the wealthy. To the extent the OWS protestors have a unifying theme, it's that capitalism is bad and that redistributing wealth to reduce "inequality" is good.

The Irish socialist playwright George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." The Occupy Wall Street protestors demanding government redistribution of wealth from the richest Americans ("the 1%") to themselves ("the 99%") would certainly agree. But as some of them are starting to learn, if their ideas were actually put into practice they'd end up being the Peters, not the Pauls.

Already, some of the OWS protestors are finding their ideas coming back to bite them...
And as to the dirty little secret that motivates many who want to "redistribute" (i.e., steal) others' wealth, read the full text of "In Praise of Capitalist Inequality".