wealth spreading okay by me
During a conversation with now-famous Joe the Plumber, Obama made the following statement:
“My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody … I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
I’ve heard a lot of huffing and puffing lately about this statement, including McCain picking up on it during the debate/campaign trail and spinning it around to mean Obama is pushing for some underhanded socialist takeover of our country.
But I see it 180° differently, I think it would be a GOOD THING to spread the wealth around a bit. Currently our country has huge differentials (in wealth, assets, power, income) between the wealthy and the rest of us (middle class, working poor, economically distressed) and I see absolutely no problem with trying to even it out a bit. (Check out this page for some good visuals and explanations - but there are lots of others too, search the web for “wealth distribution” or “income distribution” and decide for yourself.)
My guess is that there are a lot more of us struggling folks out there who agree that our country can’t be purely market-driven trickle-down (a policy which clearly — to those of us who are seeing it from close up anyway — has left the bottom folks struggling more than before) and will vote Obama into office. This election is a chance for the voice of the common people to be heard by the millions over the voices of greedy free-market capitalists. Go vote!
(I sent in my absentee ballot on Monday - go Eric Massa!)
