The Grater Good

If you consider politics, at least in a democracy, the people trying to win your vote argue that they represent the greater good.

Of course what the greater good is may not be agreed upon.

Much of our politics can be broken down into two visions of how to achieve it.

One vision is a belief that it takes leaders to move us forward and that to encourage these leaders they must be rewarded for their efforts.

Its a pretty simple premise, especially when you look at how it worked in the past.  Starting an enterprise is risky and to encourage that risk taking you need sufficient rewards.  Enterprises generate jobs and trade and many benefit form them in addition to the original owner.

The general concept is hard to argue with, with the only issue being what level of reward is enough?  We see income inequality growing greater and greater as technology and the global economy has resulted in less actual "trickle down".

The other view is similar in that it wants economic growth, but the source of that growth is not rewarded as much.  Using a progressive tax system, the reward diminish as they grow with the taxes being used to help the needy.

There is of course a third system where you effectively eliminate the entrepreneurs and do everything communally, but that isn't really something being considered in this country.

Its of course further complicated by the fact that most large enterprises are now publicly held so owners re not always easily identified.

Still, does the owner of Amazon care whether he has a few billion more dollars?  Maybe he does or maybe after some point it is simply a game to see where he is on the richest peoples list.

Certainly people with that much money can decide to use it for "good" but is that better than letting society decide where the money is most needed.

These are the questions we struggle with in this country and there is no clear answer.

We know that in the past when the inequality exceeded certain levels it led to uprisings and revolution.

That is certainly not the greater good.