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by William A. Rusher k Every once in a while some inci dent or remark explodes like a star shell over the battlefield of politics and discloses the deployment of the roops on the darkling plain below One such remark occurred in a re cfit article by liberal columnist An thony Lewis in The New York Times it deserves careful attention for what tells us about the real views of Lew is and his fellow liberals The general theme of the article is the large and (Lewis argues) growing difference between “Americans with incomes in the top 20 percent” and ev erybody else Most of the former have comprehensive health insurance, send their children to private schools, and live and work in premises protected by alarm systems and private secur iy guards Lewis quotes a fellow writer as ob serving that, “For the elite, life is really sweeter than it used to be. Food is SO much better Hotels are more sumptuous The varety of amuse ments available. the sports, the travel its a cornucopia For the few” Or more precisely, Lewis asserts for the top one-fifth of the population “The top 20 percent of Americans.’ ne declares. “now get 47 percent of the country s total income The bot om fifth gets 39 percent . have no idea where Lewis got use statistics but lets assume they re correct And lets acknowl wipe for that there is and always has been a big gap between the living con ditions of the top fifth and the bottom fifth in this country — and in every other country (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., in one of his letters to Harold Laski, remarked that it seemed to him that “socialism never got far beyond look at the big house and look at the little one. What fascinates me is Lewis’ re peated use, in the quoted passage, of the verb “to get.” Listen again “The top 20 percent of Americans now get 47 percent of the country’s total in come. The bottom fifth gets 3.9 per cent.” It sounds so patently unjust doesn't it? But think a bit’ Lewis is talking about disparate shares of “the coun try’s total income.” All income, in other words, belongs in the first in stance to “the country” represent ed, naturally, by its government. Nev er mind where that income came from where it sits, in the public fire, gravid with all sorts of toothsome possibilities Then along comes 20 percent of the population apparently shrewder and quicker than the rest and gets” 47 percent of it. The rest of us get” smaller shares, and the “bot tom” fifth for no legitimate reason gets” only 39 percent What fascinates me is what this tells us about the liberal mentality There is not the slightest recognition of the fact that all wealth is created in the first instance by individuals They dont “get” that wealth from anybody — certainly not from gov ernment. As the late John Houseman used to say, “They make it the old fashioned way They EARN it” What's more, in the beginning any way, an individual doesn’t possess a mere 47 percent, or 3.9 percent, or whatever, of what he has earned. He possesses ALL of it. 100 percent. Then along comes the government and, by using whatever force is necessary, up to and including prison, extorts from him anywhere from a quarter to a third of it every year It then proceeds to spend this loot on what it likes to call the public good, though much of it is simply distributed to the politi cians’ friends and supporters that people like Lewis seek to do is instill a totally unwarranted sense of guilt in every American who has been able to make a better than average life. in material terms, for himself and his family In so doing, they insult every person who is trying to do the same © fvvr NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN THE CONSERVATIVE ADVOCATE RUSHER WILLIAM A
Newspaper Details
Marshall Chronicle
Marshall, Michigan, US
Thu, Mar 05, 1992
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Roger M.
USA 01 Jul 2026
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