Money Matters

A dear friend pointed out the Yahoo! news story highlighting the growing gap between the rich and the poor in America that was the central artifact in a drawn-out family debate. I read this story and am left wondering what exactly is the point. What do those who wring their hands over this sort of thing propose we do about the thing? The unspoken assumption is that the pot of money is only so big and the rich are stealing from everyone else.

This is simply not true. Wealth creation is just that - the creation of wealth. America is the first society in all of human history when anyone here can set their mind to something and be free to set about making that thing happen. It is drive and risk-taking and initiative that builds new stuff and ways of doing and this new stuff and ways are what create the jobs that keep the middle and lower classes employed, productive, and yes, paid. If this drive and risk-taking and initiative are not rewarded, then what incentive will there be for these folks to continue to do what is needed to create and produce? And if the best and the brightest do not create and produce, then the middle and lower classes truly will sink to the levels of poverty seen in less fortunate parts of the world.

The rich get richer, but the other half of the story is not that the poor are getting poorer. The astute reader will have noticed this. The other half of the story is that the media does not tell is that everyone can do what the rich do and get richer as well. Dave Ramsey says that if you want to become rich, do rich people stuff. Work hard, stay out of debt, live within your means, and save. These are not hard concepts. Anyone can do them, even those people wringing their hands over the non-existent limit on wealth.