Have You Ever Noticed that “Social Justice” Means Everyone Gets Poorer?

When we last saw Max Baucus, Democratic Senator from Montana and Chair of the Finance Committee, he was busy trying to get his girlfriend a job as a United States’ Attorney. I think perhaps his colleagues would prefer he stick to the petty corruption instead of playing Spokesman of the Progressive Movement. He really let the cat out of the Democrats’ bag Friday when he described the real cherry on top of the Obamacare Sundae.

Too often, much of late, the last couple three years the mal-distribution of income in America is gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy, and the middle income class is left behind. Wages have not kept up with increased income of the highest income in America. This legislation will have the effect of addressing that mal-distribution of income in America.

As Allah says here, the “mal-distribution” that Obamacare will “address” isn’t simply between rich and poor but between the healthy but poorer old and the sick but wealthier rich. Young people, who are going to get hit very hard by Obamacare are merely collateral damage. The real objective, as Baucus says, is to even up the score.

And there lies the essential cruelty, of so-called social justice. One of the pillars of the Progressive movement has been to even the gap between rich and poor. Like the socialists and fascists from which they took their inspiration (and who, in turn, they inspired), they focus on pulling people down instead of lifting people up. Need some proof? Consider a hypothetical.

Let’s say that over a certain period of time, the rich earn $10 while the middle class earns $5 and the poor earn $2. That continues for a while until the progressives note that the rich are earning $8 more than the poor and $5 more than the beleaguered middle class. So, they do some governmental tinkering after which the rich earn $7 while the middle class earns $4 and the poor earn $1.50. Now, the gaps have certainly closed. In fact, the gap between rich and poor closed by as much as the poor actually make. Victory!

But did you see what happened to the poor and middle class? Oh, the progressives surely “corrected” the “mal-distribution” of income. They held a press conference and sent out fundraising flyers touting their big win over the rich. But not one of them will ever have to answer to a poor person whose income was just reduced 25 percent right off the top, or a middle class family whose earnings took a 20 percent hit even before the economy contracts around them. Heck no. They narrowed the gap between right and poor, so everything’s just fine. Such is the perverse morality of “social justice”.

Here are a couple questions to ponder. Why don’t progressives ever suggest a policy whereby everyone’s earnings increase? Why should the gap between the rich and everyone else actually matter, if everyone else is getting ahead?

And here’s the big one, to my thinking. How can a poor person ever expect to become rich with progressives holding them back?

Tags: Economics, Max Baucus, Progressives