There is a fable that helps illustrate some of what has been happening in the presidential debates. In the fable, a dog has a bone in his mouth and upon coming in contact with a pool of water, looks into the pool and discovers what appears to be another dog with even a bigger bone in his mouth. The dog with the bone liked the idea of a bigger bone so he turned loose of his bone and reached in the water for the other bone. The result was that he lost his bone and discovered to his dismay that the water bone was not real after all. The point is that we often lose the attainable by seeking for the unattainable.

I rather think that may be the plight of the 40% of non taxpayers who are impressed with the promise of receiving a check from the IRS without having paid any taxes. Doesn't it seem more just if we take from the wealthy and give to the needy.

What happens, however, if the jobs that provide minimum income, but at least income dry up because the wealthy in order to maintain that wealth have to cut back payroll and benefits. Then the income from the wealthy decreases unless their taxes are raised even more and even more jobs are lost and the non taxpayers numbers will increase from 40% to 50, or even more. The payers become less and the amount paid becomes less while the needy become more and more. It might be better to hold on to what we have rather than look into a dream pool which seems to offer bigger benefits only to prove to be an illsion.

In America we are committed to justice and many times with the best of intentions we want to help the disadvantaged only to discover that the justice we seek is beyond humans to produce and in the process we become less just. In our effort to manipulate the system to increase justice we quite often ignore the innocent and create more injustice for innocent victims than we eliminate.

In law enforcement, our courts decided that criminals were not being treated equally by law enforcement officers. Thus the Miranda rights were introduced requiring that suspects who were being arrested should be reminded of their right to silence. After all, experienced criminals learned the hard way not to talk, but novices who were just beginning their criminal life style did not have the sreet savvy and would often confess. Our courts decided it was not fair that career criminals had an advantage over beginners. The forgotten group was the innocent victims of criminal behavior and those who would witness their attackers going free because of a question concerning reading his rights or some other minor technicality in the securing of evidence that clearly indicts the suspect. No wonder America has become less safe.

Thoma Sowell, a black philosopher, has come under attack from many of the black leaders in America because he refuses to blame the breakup of the black families and the greater share of social and financial problems they experience upon the results of slavery. He points out that until the sixties divorce rates and marriage breakups in the black community were consistent with the numbers of the white community. Slavery had been over for a hundred years. He further noted that immigration from Africa to America was and had been for decades higher than the number of black Americans immigrating to Africa. He points out that their standared of living and opportunites are far greater than they would have been had they remained in Africa.

America should provide and defend equal opportunity for all citizens regardless of race or creed. However, when the American government moves from providing safeguards for equal opportunity and begins promising equal outcome for all regardless of whether they have taken advantage of their opportunities or not, we are travelling a dangerous path and the innocent will suffer and the outcomes will be good only for those making the promises and not for those having to live with the processes introduced to effect the change.

Affirmative action is another example of taking away privileges earned by hard work and offering them to people who may be less equipped to saisfy the demands of a challenging curriculum. Parents who work hard and children who work hard in quest of a quality education can be denied the opportunity in order to try and compensate for perceived disadvantages suffered by a minority in the past. Entrance exams are dumbed down and grading is dumbed down in order to assure a successful outcome.
Then employers are disappointed because graduates with good transcripts can't perform. Our graduates when compared with graduates in other industrialized and technologically advanced countries do poorly, and we become less competitive in the global market place. The result is that all suffer including those whose deprivations we were attempting to address. We best help the needy not by redistribution of the wealth but providing equal opportunity for success to those who will study hard and work hard. Most of America's wealth is not in the hands of inherited aristocracy but in the hands of people who grew up in a middle or even low income home. Yet, their family and often their faith encouraged them to not become victims caught in the trap of the status quo, but to dream and to work to turn those dreams into reality.

Where else on the planet do such opportunities exist?Which country in the world would you rather live in than The good ol' USof A. What's is good for America is good for all Americans. If we begin encouraging class envy and begin drafting legislation designed to bring about equal outcomes rather than protecting life, liberty, property and equal opportunity we will see more and more incentive killed from equal opportunity employers and more and more incentive to reach out our hands. The only people thriving will be the people we have empowered by the loss of our own power granted by freedom and equal opportunity.