Wait! Wait! Say it ain't so Saul Alinsky!
Just read the headline "Russia and China Join the USA In Having More Than 100 Billionaires". http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/3/283f1608-7a5e-11e1-839f-00144feab49a.html#axzz1qnddQWuz
Now I understand how Russia can have 100 Billionaires. What with them turning their backs on communism and embracing capitalism and all. I mean it makes sense. Freeing individuals to accomplish all that they can and not have to give it all to the state for redistribution will inevitably lead to some individuals achieving higher levels of success.
But China, how can it be oh comrades Marx and Engels? You told us that in a workers paradise like China, where the rewards of labor will be shared willingly and equally amongst all, that individuals will cease to be personally competitive. They will labor happily for the benefit of all! None will need or want to "OWN" anything, as all will be shared. I believe you told us it will be "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" with the end goal that all will happily exist on an even plane.
Isn't that the general concept that our liberal/progressive/socialist/communists (LPSC) in this country are espousing as the talk about "leveling" the playing field? When they claim they only want the high end producers to pay their "fair" share as they reap the benefits of this country "letting" them make all this money?
There are two major flaws in the LPSCs premise. First, this country (and by the LPSCs' lights they mean the government) didn't "let" the productive people win any lottery of life, unless you mean it got the hell out of their way and left them alone, at which point it didn't do squat and there for has no claim on their income. Other than what would be necessary to protect every citizens right to live without fear of someone depriving them of life or property through force or fraud, a just government has NO claim on their income or property.
The second major flaw would be the concept of paying their "fair" share! One could easily posit that it is those who are paying NO taxes who are not paying their fair share! They are the ones who are siphoning off the public treasury while putting nothing in it! The high performers are already paying the lion's share of the taxes. In the US, the top 10% of earners pay 70% of the income taxes paid. (This is why the Fair Tax is such a just system. But that is a discussion for another day.)
Don't believe me? Look at this:
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/29/chart-of-the-week-top-1-percent-paid-38-percent-of-taxes/
So, back to our original question, how in a workers paradise like China could there possibly be over 100 Billionaires?
The answer is really quite simple. Human nature trumps academic theory.
While occasionally you will be able to find a small group of people willing to work for the collective good to their own detriment, those occasions are few and far between. People look to have a hierarchy. It tells them where they are. They like fair systems that let them move up through force of effort (and down through indolence or bad judgement).
Humans do seem to have a streak of benevolence and like to help others when possible, but not to the point of hurting themselves or their own. This is born out in the old phrase "charity begins at home".
Even in a LPSC system, human nature will find a way to prevail. Whether its legally within a system like here in the US, or most likely illegally or extra-legally as is taking place in China, people will strive to be successful and keep the bounty of their efforts. Thus producing millionaires and billionaires.
Or at least that's the way it looks to an old farm boy.
