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 Fred Schnaubelt |
San Diego Transcript Sept. 29th, 2011
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In the epic movie "Ben-Hur," Messala, Ben-Hur's childhood friend turned enemy, tries to kill Ben-Hur in the Circus Maximus with a spiked war chariot. But Messala is upended, dragged under its wheels and near death is carried to the medical ward, where doctors bleed him (the ancient custom of bloodletting). He dies from a loss of blood. Much like Messala, our economy today is bleeding to death — from too much borrowing, too much debt, and the Washington Circus wanting to borrow more money and go further into debt.
The latest ruse fallback position is for politicians to clamor for more taxes from millionaires and billionaires. Unable to demonize them as being racists, they’re accused of being, well, rich. Politicians are unable to hide their resentment of success, and they demand the rich pay “their fair share” of taxes. Unable to think rationally and reason, some members of Congress want to tie taxpayers to the railroad tracks in the belief that any tax less than 100 percent of one’s income is a “tax loophole.”
The founders enjoyed a much different view of human nature. They devised a system of checks and balances, which today we call gridlock. Thomas Jefferson said a government that governs least governs best. When governed and taxed least, the people have proven to be at their most productive. The class warfare being waged today, however, builds on two of the seven deadly sins recognized since early Christian times: covetousness and envy (others wanting what you have or wanting you deprived of it).
During the 1850s, all levels of government took an estimated 3 percent to 5 percent of the people’s earnings — the birth of that general period when more progress was made in human welfare than in all previous recorded history. By 1930 it was 15 percent, and today more than 40 percent — the amount of an individual’s income over which he has no say as an individual as to how it’s spent. Notice a trend here? To some politicians no amount of taxes will ever be enough.
Robert Sheaffer, in his intriguing book “Resentment Against Achievement,” writes, “Civilization is the sum total of all its achievements, and at any given time there are two opposing moral codes in every society.” One is the morality of achievement of work, competence and accomplishment, the other is hostility toward success, the morality of resentment against achievement.
Sheaffer tells us “resentment” must wear masks when it appears in public. It’s sometimes disguised as the pursuit of social justice, or class struggle or paying one’s fair share, all lofty-sounding terms invented to mask the ugly reality of the mob outraged by the wealth earned by others, the mob to which politicians pander.
True achievers are society’s builders — society’s creators of art, music and literature, society’s creators of jobs, society’s heroes. They exhibit singleness of purpose, exceptional self-confidence and do not create solely for the enjoyment of the fruits of their labor but because of an inner fire constantly urging them on. They act on intuition and faith. Enormously successful people, particularly billionaires, have inborn qualities, intellect, willpower and character that cannot be taught or learned, or else our universities would be turning them out by the thousands instead of bureaucrats.
Problems, dilemmas and paradoxes are not sources of discouragement and frustration but the necessary spurs to creativity. Achievers strive for competence and accomplishment in pursuit of excellence. They enjoy being successful regardless of how much money they earn because it’s fun. Listen to them when interviewed. In our economy there are unlimited wants, which means there are unlimited jobs if only government will get out of the way. And if true achievers make gobs of money by creating jobs, it just makes life all the more fun.
The power to tax is the power to destroy, opined Chief Justice John Marshall. Demonizing wealthy achievers and bleeding them to death with higher and higher taxes is the power to destroy their motivation. The real losers are every one of us who benefits from achievers’ art, music, literature and technological advances, such as networking through Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook to name a few. Regarding the resentment from not paying their "fair share"? The Wall Street Journal editorialized on Aug. 17 that the top 3 percent of income earners of more than $200,000 pay more than the bottom 97 percent in personal income taxes. That’s what’s unfair. What’s fair about that?
Schnaubelt, president of Citizens for Private Property Rights, has been a commercial real estate broker
for 40 years and was a San Diego city councilman from 1977 to 1981.
Fred Schnaubelt, 2728 Adams Ave, S.D. 92116 (619) 280-2082
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