More on American Way

We do a lot to try to give everyone a fair start at the starting line. But once the race is underway, how much should we do to regulate its progress? We do realize that we can't guarantee that everyone finishes together, i.e., not everyone can end up with the same income and the same amount of money. Individual differences in ability, motivation, etc., account for differences in result. To the degree that there are unfair barriers for some and unfair advantages to others, we try to eliminate those. But we can't eliminate the individual differences that result in differences in economic outcome. Some people believe that we should guarantee that everyone ends up with the same result, but that has been tried, and it failed miserably. (There have been voluntary associations of people that have worked successfully that way, but not a national government.) Nor is selfishness the ultimate answer, despite Ayn Rand's assertions, because most people do want to help others.

Our system, as envisioned by economist Adam Smith a couple of centuries ago, has built in rewards and penalties. Having a well-functioning economy requires productive activity from its participants. The rewards for production and the penalties for lack of production are important factors in our system. Trying to regulate that and modify it probably slows down economic activity.

On the other hand, our fear of having excessive differences between rich and poor is probably a legitimate concern. If we could think of ways of helping those who need help without penalizing the production of the most productive, and without damaging the incentives of those being helped, that would be ideal.

(Of course, making a lot of money is sometimes not the same thing as being productive. We have laws to prevent people from making money dishonestly. Also we should not assume that everyone who makes a lot of money is somehow doing it dishonestly. Most of them are good people. It's the bad apples that give them a bad name.)

It would be nice if we could keep in mind that we are all in this together, and all help as best we can.