It is disconcerting to think that some of my fellow citizens want to expropriate my wealth. They believe I have more money than I need and fairness demands it be redistributed. They unashamedly and brazenly demonstrate and petition to transform the rule of law, i.e., the individual and property rights guaranteed by the Constitution, to a collectivist rule of expediency, a.k.a. mob rule.
Who determines how much confiscation is “fair?” How long will it take to run out of other people’s money? The noted economist Dr. Thomas Sowell asks why is it “greed” for individuals to want to keep the money they’ve earned but not “greed” for bureaucrats to want to take their money. Socialism has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. We’ve succumbed to a desire to replace what works with what sounds good.
Sowell warns that people who think they can change the world are infinitely more dangerous than mere crooked politicians. It is difficult to imagine a more stupid way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.
If you voted for someone who promised to give you goodies at someone else’s expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.
Ed Konecnik
Flushing
