Consumer confidence is at an all time high. Businesses are bringing back thousands of jobs and foreign investment in the United States is growing by leaps and bounds. GDP is over 3.3 percent, double the Obama years, and may top 4 percent by the end of 2018. We have a stock market at an all time high, and businesses are planning on expanding and adding new services.
Yes, the rich are getting richer, but who cares. All of your money, my money, and Bill Gates money is just a number in a bank’s computer anyway. Regardless of how you may feel about Donald Trump you must ask yourself this simple question. Are the poor among us better off with jobs that create value and pay higher wages? Or are the poor better off having to work at teenager jobs that pay minimum wage?
It is well past time that we set aside the petty emotions of envy and jealousy of the rich that are among us and face the realities of modern life. People do not and will not thrive in a socialist society. There is no such thing as “free. Everything in life must be paid for. No system is perfect and some people will always be left behind. There will be winners and losers in everything that life has to offer. But the vast majority of people are better served when they are free to prosper and grow as they desire. When people are free to use their own ideas, talents, and hard work to create value we are all better off as a society. Life does not come without risks. You will make some bad decisions and suffer the consequences from them. And we will always have the poor. They are the bottom 16 percent of the bell curve. It’s simple math folks.
The poor will always be with us, but they will be much better off in a society with a median income of $60,000 than a society with a median income of $9,000. As a free people we will prosper. Too much government is a bad thing. For some reason this is a hard lesson for some folks to learn.
(Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.)