Myth #10 The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer

From the new book by Sam Carpenter, a chapter from Making Oregon Great Again: Guide to the Grassroots Revitalization of the Oregon Republican Party (and the Defeat of the Ruling Class).

Download the entire book for free at www.makeoregongreatagain.com/book

CHAPTER 10

Myth #10 The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer

Horsepucky. America is not an old European kingdom. Nor is it some kind of ancient Indian caste system. In the chart below, I’ve illustrated the 2% of top earners (green, at the top of the oval), and the lowest-earning 2% (red, at the bottom of the oval). Then note everyone else, the remaining 96% — the middle class. Here’s the key point: see the arrows that indicate movement up and down the economic scale? The poor sometimes strike it rich. The rich sometimes lose everything. Some people in the middle go up a bit, while others go down a bit.

In America, there is constant movement! There is no “permanent rich.” There is no “permanent poor!”

In my own life, I spent nearly twenty years pumping gas, scrubbing other people’s toilets, riding on the back of garbage trucks, digging ditches by hand, selling door-to-door, flipping hamburgers. There were literally dozens of other equally low-level jobs, too (see Appendix P). Then, at the age of 50, I figured things out and went from the bottom of the scale to the top of the scale in the course of just a few years. Been there ever since.

Could I slide back to the bottom of the oval? Of course, and I am always watching out for that possibility.

You and I can’t stop others from using drugs and/or alcohol, or from making other bad errors-of-judgement, causing their fiscal and social worlds to crumble. It’s not our fault or society’s fault when that happens. It’s the individual’s fault, and society is not required to bail that person out. Yes, I understand there are those who by no cause of their own – children, the elderly, and physically and mentally wounded veterans, for example – find themselves at the bottom of the heap. Our wealthy society certainly has the wherewithal to help those people who are truly in need and have not self-destructed.

In any case, don’t buy into the inane platitude that the-rich-get-richer-while-the poor-get-poorer. This is America! You don’t live in North Korea or Cuba. In the United States, more so than anywhere else on earth, you can create the life of your dreams if you will simply pay close attention to the mechanics of how things operate, put off instant gratification, work hard, and create value for those around you.*

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