Do Americans Want Fairness or Prosperity?

For Obama and the Democrats the issue is "fairness," defined by how a single pie is cut.

 

 

For Conservatives, the issue is "prosperity," as defined by the making of as many pies as possible.

 

You decide.

And in 113 days, vote accordingly.

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

There's a deep irony at work here: The idea beneath the one-slice-for-all philosophy is that once everyone gets an equal slice of the pie, everyone will be happy; cut the pie into exactly equal portions and universal bliss will ensue. But in truth that is exactly the opposite of what would happen. Samuel Johnson nailed the fallacy here when he said, a couple of centuries ago, "Better that some should be unhappy than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality." Truer words were never spoken. Give everyone an equal slice, and nothing but unhappiness will ensue. Those who are enterprising, hard-working, and independent-minded will feel cheated of their rightful share of the pie, and those who are lazy and dependent will still fear that someone more clever or more industious than they will find a way to get a bigger slice. On the one side, the result would be thwarted ambition, and on the other side, the result would be smoldering suspicion. Result: everyone would be unhappy. William Sumner called equality "the offspring of envy and covetousness." He was right. The envious and covetous will always be envious and covetous. Let them wallow in their self-inflicted unhappiness, and let the rest of us get to work baking more pies.