Courtesy of Keith Weiner at Acting Man
Erroneous Assumptions
“The top 25 hedge fund managers made more than all the kindergarten teachers in the country,” declared President Obama in a discussion of poverty at Georgetown University. Calling them “society’s lottery winners,” he proposed to hike their taxes.
Predictably, battle lines have been formed between two polarized sides. One side—let’s call them the Gauche for convenience’s sake—is unhappy with the pay disparity. CBS News, in an almost neutral tone, asks, “Which group provides more value to America?” The reader is supposed to somehow answer that question, presumably in favor of teachers. Gawker goes much farther, calling hedge fund managers the biggest gangsters of all. It asserts, “It is, as the myth goes, capitalism at its most pure …”
The imposing HQ of the US Federal Reserve. Central banks are socialist central planning institutions, and are subject to the constraints the socialist calculation problem imposes on all planners. An economy with a central bank is no longer a free market economy – it is at best a hampered market economy. Photo credit: Susan Candelario
The other side—let’s call them the Adroit—defends hedge fund managers. PJ Media said, “That single comment [about winning the lottery] defines the president’s economic worldview. Success doesn’t come to those who act rationally in pursuit of their values. It doesn’t come from hard work performed intelligently.”
The US Gini coefficient, a measure of income disparity. The question one must ask is: why is it growing so much? Partly the reasons are legitimate: the advent of the computer industry in the widest sense has led to growing demand for skilled workers, who command a high price for their labor in the marketplace. But mostly, it is the result of government intervention, especially market distortions created by central bank policy. Ironically, most on the political left actually love the central bank (since in their book, all central planning of the economy must somehow be good).
Both sides get it partly correct and partly in error. The Gauche correctly observe something monstrously unfair: ever-larger financial profits accruing to an ever-shrinking group. However, their basic assumption is false. We do not have capitalism today. And their policy is the same old cliché: soak the rich.
The Adroit are also correct about something. More taxes will not help anyone, and making money is not a lottery. However, in their desire to oppose the other team, they are missing the elephant in the room—rising assets, and falling yields. They too assume that we have capitalism. The reality is that all capital markets are massively distorted. Getting rich isn’t blind luck, but sometimes it’s not properly earned either.
