POINTS AND FIGURES: The Solution to Income Inequality is to Empower People.

The policies that will solve for income inequality empower people. They don’t “take care” of people. People shouldn’t be warehoused and pushed aside or ignored from cradle to grave. People are assets. They aren’t liabilities to society. Successful policy isn’t about “handouts” or “hands up”. Policy should make it easier for individuals to control their own actions, and make their own way. There is dignity in work. There is dignity in the struggle. There is no dignity in government handouts.

That’s not to say government doesn’t have a role to play. It does. Laissez-Faire works to a point. But the problems are too deep, too ingrained for government to entirely walk away.

Our society is not based on a “zero sum game”. It’s based on opportunity (the pursuit of happiness). It’s not based on pure equality in every facet of life, but the equal opportunity to pursue life. America is a capitalistic free enterprise society. This core principle ensures that income inequality will always be present in our society. People will always be entering our society (and we want them) and transitioning through our society. Usually, they start at the bottom.

Instead of focusing on income inequality, we should be creating policy that focuses on income mobility and economic opportunity. Most of the policies on the books in America today make those two concepts harder to attain.

Ask yourself which policies provide better opportunities for graft and self-aggrandizement, and you’ll know which ones our political class will favor.