It is not Envy that Calls One to Community Responsibility

In an article in the St. Louis Beacon, R.W. Hafer says that President Obama is against success [1], and asks the question: “Is it true that someone's success must come at the expense of others?”  If you answer that question in the affirmative, then, according to Dr. Hafer, you must believe that the talented, the hard working, and the risk takers shouldn’t be rewarded, and that all wages and incomes should be leveled to prevent inequality.

Dr. Hafer is a research professor of economics and finance at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and must, therefore, be aware that resources are finite.  As a matter of arithmetic, those who own more than a proportionate share of those resources will by that ownership necessitate a lesser share for others.  Simply observing that logical and empirical reality does not make one in favor of leveling incomes or removing incentives from the economic system.

What the observation might do is convince one that there ought to be safeguards in place to ensure that everyone has enough.  That is always the real debate: should there be an economic safety net for the less able among us?  And should the more able, in our case those more able to accurately anticipate the prices of gold or pork bellies, contribute to ensure that those who have lesser skills like teaching, carpentry, or fixing automobiles don’t fall below a certain level?

Besides, sometimes the success of some does indeed come directly at the expense of others.  When companies move their manufacturing facilities outside of the United States, they do so at the expense of the jobs of those they previously employed, and of the country as a whole that must bear the economic burden of the corresponding reduction in consumer purchasing power.  They also institutionalize low wages in developing countries.

Those who object to the widening income disparity in the United States are not doing so because of envy.  On the contrary, what is being suggested is that those who benefit the most from the prevailing economic system in the United States should be the first to recognize that they are part of a larger community called the nation, and should act accordingly.