In his 1922 book Socialism, Ludwig von Mises explained why socialist policies are, in reality, forms of “destructionism.” They create nothing, just erode and destroy the economic bases of civilization.
The motive animating the socialists’ rationalizations — exploded in systematic detail by Mises — is resentment and envy.
Which are also behind a new tax on billionaires slated to appear on California’s November 3 ballot as Proposition 40.
Billionaires haven’t done anything wrong merely by earning great wealth. Typically, they’ve done something right. They’ve been industrious and entrepreneurial and helped people improve their lives. Typically, they earn their billions; which, incidentally, they don’t stuff under a giant mattress but invest further.
This doesn’t stop the tax’s demagogic proponents, like Ro Khanna, from claiming that the interests of the “donor class” are inherently opposed to those of the “working class.”
Khanna wants government to privilege one “class” over the other. But as Dmitri Bolt points out, neither should get a government-enforced advantage. “The real choice is between freedom and its absence: between an economy in which people are free to work and keep the fruits of their labor, and one in which politicians get to decide how much success is too much and which class deserves to pay for everyone else.”
Investors create opportunities for everybody, of whatever “class.” And when the walls seem to be closing in economically, it’s often because politicians like Khanna have “chosen to restrict one group’s freedom while pretending [to expand] opportunity for the other.”
Californians have a great opportunity to choose freedom over internecine class warfare in November.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration created with Nano Banana
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