“The Industrial Revolution, starting in 1770 in Britain, had little to do with its universities and nothing to do with its government…willpower, effort and imitative raised men above their circumstances…it is also important side note that before that Revolution more than half the children born, wealthy or poor, failed to reach the age of five. By 1830 more than 75% lived way beyond that age.” –Paul Johnson
The definition of democracy implies a government by informed discourse, meaning individual views can and do change in the process of decision making, based primarily on proof, fact, logic, and reason. So, let’s do a little.
Given the perspective of history, every American alive today is easily among the wealthiest 1% of people to have lived on earth. The poorest of the poor in America have luxuries unheard of to most kings of the past. Do you appreciate running water? Electric lights? Advanced medical care? And we haven't even pointed out the fact that most of our technology -- that the "poor" largely benefit from -- has been developed by <gasp!> wealthy corporations. Understood properly, the past productivity of the wealthy is the only reason such luxuries are available to the so-called poor today. America's "poor" are far wealthier than the middle classes of most other nations.
If anything hurts the poor of the world, it's American class warfare. "In our attempt to blame poverty on prejudice, we have taught the poor to be prejudiced against the basic values necessary to sustain a free and civil society.... We've taught them there are no real absolutes to the human condition -- except perhaps that the highest value in life is to acquire things." --Star Parker.
Wealth has no agency. What matters is how people behave. Wealth depends not just on available opportunities but also on the interests and abilities of individuals, not to mention random occasional luck. In the long run, America’s along with the world's poor are most effectively helped by the system that helped create wealth in the United States -- free markets, limited government, and just laws(1). Want to help the poor, support free trade. To rebel against the free market is, in reality, self-serving, self-contradictory hogwash. At best, it's incoherent; at worst, it's a malicious deception.
Americans are overwhelmingly pro-business. They understand for the most part, businesses help their lives, government detracts from them. Businesses produce jobs, prosperity, a higher standard of living. Government produces nothing and destroys much. Businesses have to be efficient to avoid going bankrupt. Government just prints more money and inflation. Businesses have a powerful motive to succeed, governments do not. Businesses have to innovate to stay competitive, governments do not. Government is bureaucracy, the opposite of innovation. Businesses create wealth for all of society. Governments destroy wealth for all but the powerful.
(1). “Charitable efforts are vital expression of human solidarity that, when carried out wisely, play a crucial role in relieving human suffering. But they are not the way people escape poverty. The normal way is through enterprise and free-markets—through ordinary, everyday business…Applying our intelligence as well as our sympathy is actually the most loving thing we can do for the poor”---Rev Robert Sirico
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