Back In The USSR?

Okay...I was going to start this post out differently, but you know what's pretty awesome? When you type in "John Galt's Oath" in the Google search engine, my post with that title comes up among the top five. Kinda cool...

I just looked over that post and this is not unlike that one that I had published previously.

There is a serious problem with Barack Obama and it has everything to do with his economic policies. I am reading a couple of articles now about wealth redistribution and I should probably wait until I finish those before writing more on this subject, but I'm too anxious to wait until I get around to it to put down some quick thoughts.

I read this article this morning about Obama's socialist policies. That really isn't an exaggeration by any means. If you have any doubts, check out some of these proposed investments by the Obama camp:

• "Universal," "guaranteed" health care.
• "Free" college tuition.
• "Universal national service" (a la Havana).
• "Universal 401(k)s" (in which the government would match contributions made by "low- and moderate-income families").
• "Free" job training (even for criminals).
• "Wage insurance" (to supplement dislocated union workers' old income levels).
• Free "child care and "universal" preschool.
• More subsidized public housing.
• A fatter earned income tax credit for "working poor."
• And even a Global Poverty Act that amounts to a Marshall Plan for the Third World, first and foremost Africa.

I hope we can all recognize those things for what they are - socialist ideas. His policies all center on government taking and redistributing the wealth of the people who have earned it. I don't even have any assets or wealth to speak of and I'm pissed about it. Government matches for 401ks? Are you kidding me? So where does the government get money to fund that kind of program? Taxes. Who gets taxed? The rich. Do you have any idea how the tax burden is currently distributed? The top 1% of Americans in terms of earned income pay for nearly a third of federal tax burden. The top 25% pays for nearly 75% of all of the tax burden (source data).

Hey...if you still haven't read Atlas Shrugged, I highly recommend it. The book isn't necessarily all that well written, but the political message is so important. Taking money from the most capable people pisses them off and makes them not want to produce anymore. It's one of the single greatest arguments for capitalism over a market economy. But the story mainly revolves around the thrust of John Galt's oath:

I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

There is no fixed pie. These socialist ideas don't work. They just don't. Is the entire 20th century not evidence enough? When Reagan came into power and championed the trickle down philosophy, record gains were had by people of all income levels, from the poorest to the richest.

As a nation, if we begin to adopt the economics of redistribution, there will come a point when Atlas will shrug and toss off that burden of carrying the world.