Gettysburg, Part II

                The phrase “all men are created equal” raises certain expectations, among them the expectation that all people will have, eventually, about the same amount of material possessions.  Or at least that there will not be a terrible disparity between haves and have-nots.

                Unfortunately there are all kinds of people, and there are differences among them in their abilities to have, their abilities to handle life, their abilities to lead (or follow) and their capacities to be in charge of things.  The tendency is always for some people to accumulate more than others.

                This is not to say that it must always be that some have things at the expense of others.  Nor does it mean that those who have a lot of material things can’t help those who have less.  It does not mean that the haves are actively trying to prevent the have-nots from having. 

                There are all kinds of people, and this also means that at the highest and lowest levels there are good people and bad people.  It is not healthy for people to think that goodness is represented only in their own social stratum and badness is in some other. 

                It is not true that the so-called rich and powerful are trying to screw everyone else.  (Certainly not all of them!)  Nevertheless it is true that some people amongst the highest social strata are not always acting in the best interests of people other than themselves.  In other words, there are good and bad people amongst the rich, just as there are amongst the poor and the middle-class.

                Finding out who is good and who is bad is among the hardest things in life.  The belief here is that most people are good, and we want to trust people.  The danger we constantly face is that of trusting someone who does not deserve to be trusted. 

                People who can create or run a business are useful because they can create and maintain jobs that enable other people to earn a living.  Some people who have those jobs blame their bosses for not being more generous with their money.  They want higher pay.  There is a fine balance between profitability and generosity.  The survival of a business requires a certain amount of profitability.  Pressure from many quarters puts pressure on the bottom line, among them pressure from competitors, government regulations, taxes and pressure from employees seeking higher pay.  There is also pressure from shareholders seeking dividends in exchange for continued and/or new investment in the company.  This last group will be the subject of our next post.