Al Gore repeatedly attacks two groups–the “wealthy” and “big corporations.” He creates hostility through crude stereotypes, as bigots do: The wealthy are universally undeserving (less than $300,000 of income triggers the maximum federal income tax rate of 39.6 percent, so we’re not talking just millionaires here), and corporations destroy the environment and do other bad things to make a profit. This isn’t harmless rhetoric. Words meant to polarize people and dehumanize opponents are very effective. Talk like this is inappropriate for the leader of any nation, especially this one. Self-reliance and the American Dream that all can aspire to greatness have made this country rich and resilient.
Many of our ancestors were pioneers who migrated west seeking independence and fortune. Courageous African-American pioneers migrated north first for basic liberty, then for jobs and better lives.
Yet Gore implicitly condemns aspiring to wealth or power. He prefers the role of Great Protector, Robin Hood to the small and meek. His desire to exalt himself in this manner should be seen for what it is–patronizing and dangerous, because redistributing other people’s assets is the true power play. Those whose resources are taken are helpless to prevent it, while the recipients are weakened by dependence. In its ultimate form, when this was called communism, the “wealthy” were those who confiscated, not those who created.
We also have prospered because of the free-enterprise system, yet both Gore and Ralph Nader condemn big corporations in general (while Hollywood churns out movies portraying death threats and murder as standard corporate practice). These attacks can be explained in only one of two ways: as a strategy to end free enterprise or as irrational fear,
Under free enterprise the primary object of all corporations is to make money, lawfully. Millions of Americans have been empowered by investing in, working in and buying from them. The only alternative to the profit motive is a system (call it what you will) in which people are not allowed to profit from their own ideas and labor. Historically such systems always fail, unfortunately not before spawning great atrocities.
Corporations can commit crime, just as individuals can. But, unlike individuals, all significant activities of the biggest U.S. companies are strictly policed by state and federal agencies. Financial disclosure, hiring and firing, workplace safety, product safety, competitive business practices, environmental protection, fraud prevention, tax obligations–all are audited and intensely regulated. Plaintiffs’ lawyers do their part as well. Short of nationalizing the economy, big corporations could scarcely be subject to more control. Are we to believe that all these government people are sleeping at the switch?
We don’t need a demagogue as president. We need to protect the balanced system we have, in which all of us have opportunity to prosper and be strong.
