5 Simple Steps to End (Political) Inequality and Restore Opportunity in America
To hear the likes of Senator Bernie Sanders (not to mention plenty of non-avowed socialists) tell it, the economic, political, and moral scourge of our time in America is economic inequality, and the only antidote is the use of state power to make outcomes fair, just, and equal.
But the truth is that this gets things precisely backwards: fighting economic inequality destroys the only kind of equality that matters: political equality.
When the government treats us all the same by protecting our equal rights, then the result is inevitable economic inequality since different people create radically different amounts of economic value. To fight economic inequality, you have to treat people differently, by imposing special penalties on the successful and giving special privileges to the less successful. But this sort of political inequality is precisely what’s killing opportunity, progress, and fairness in America today.
Here are steps that can help end the scourge of political inequality and unleash unlimited opportunity in America, adapted from my new definitive challenge to the inequality alarmists (co-authored with Yaron Brook), Equal Is Unfair: America’s Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality.
- Abolish all forms of corporate welfare so that no business can gain unfair advantages.
This includes bailouts, subsidies, tariffs, government-granted monopolies, and the like. Businesses should have to compete for customers on a free market. They should not be able to line their pockets by striking deals with politicians, or to slow down and stop innovators from challenging convention and improving how we live.
2. Abolish government barriers to work so that every individual can enjoy the dignity of earned success.
Opportunity depends in part on being able to find a job, any job, and work your way up. We should end all laws and regulations that prevent people from finding jobs. Above all, we should abolish the minimum wage, pro-union laws, and occupational licensing requirements that act as barriers of entry for would-be workers and entrepreneurs.
3. Phase out the welfare state so that America can once again become the land of self-reliance.
The welfare state represents the total inversion of the ideal of opportunity: instead of liberating us to live self-supporting, self-directing lives, the welfare state prevents us from living self-supporting, self-directing lives. Social Security and Medicare alone force younger people to work more than a month and a half each year without pay in order to supply elderly Americans with handouts. But it’s not just about the money we lose. These paternalistic programs take away our freedom to plan our lives as we judge best, telling us how to prepare for retirement or how to fulfill our health care needs. The welfare state is unnecessary, destructive, and immoral. The vast majority of Americans are capable of being self-supporting throughout their lives, and would be in a far better position to be self-supporting if so much of what they earned didn’t go into other people’s pockets.
4. Unleash the power of innovation in education by ending the government monopoly on schooling.
The cruelest, most destructive aspect of what government does is deprive children of their potential through the government school system. At the same time that we hesitate to give government control over our health care decisions, we give the state total control over the ideas and values our children are taught. It is bad enough that today’s schools are filled with propaganda — including attacks on capitalism, the Founding Fathers, and business — but much worse is that fact that children are not even taught how to think. We should start by giving parents tax credits if they decide to opt out of the government schools to search for better alternatives. But ultimately, if we value opportunity and our children’s future, we should abolish the government schools and open the field to creators and innovators.
5. Liberate innovators from the regulatory shackles that are strangling them.
Human progress depends on innovators being free to “think different” and challenge the status quo. Regulations are innovation killers because, unlike legitimate laws, which proscribe criminal behavior, regulations proscribe and prescribe productive behavior. The worst villain here is antitrust, which punishes the most successful innovators for the very business activities that make them successful. Cutting prices equals “predatory pricing.” Raising prices equals “price gouging.” Keeping prices in line with competitors equals “collusion.” Buying up businesses and expanding into new markets equals “intent to monopolize.” A superlative product and a legion of passionate customers equal “barriers to entry.” Profits amount to proof of “market failure” and “monopoly power.” If we could do only one thing to encourage innovation and show that we value innovators, it should be to abolish antitrust, totally and immediately — and to apologize to its victims.
For more from Equal Is Unfair, you can read the first chapter of the book for free here, and check out our trailer below:
