Facts are stubborn things

I first saw that quote in a history book forty years ago.  It was attributed to Josef Stalin, but Stalin may have gotten if from none other than John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers.  Wherever it came from, it is true, no amount of wishing, hoping or denying is going to change a single fact.

When it comes to the economy, people just don't seem to want to face facts.  Where does wealth come from?  Is that a fact or a dream?  Without wealth, there can be no jobs, don't you think?  Yet none of the discussion seems to be about creating wealth.  No, the discussion is about going after those who have created wealth.  As if this was the problem.  Rather than a problem, I would suggest that this is the solution.

It must be a fact of human nature for those who have little to resent those who have much.  Although it may be possible to take away the rich man's wealth, once that is gone, where will new wealth come from?  Or to put it another way, if you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, how will you get any more golden eggs?  Spreading the wealth is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.  It depends upon the notion that by having more, somehow the rich has taken it away from the poor.  The only solution seems to be to return to the poor what the rich has stolen.  That sort of thinking is what gives rise to such thoughts as is expressed by the article "The Political and Economic Assault on the Middle Class".

The Middle Class isn't poor, but it isn't rich either.  If this class wants to maintain its status, how is that possible?  If manufacturing jobs are the way to a better life, what do you do to replace it if the manufacturing jobs go away?  You could stop progress in its tracks and deny that progress which threatens the future of this class.  That means protectionism, if it means keeping manufacturing jobs by denying foreign competition.  Or it could mean freezing methods in place, if the new method means machines will take over jobs once done by people.  But change is a fact.  And facts are stubborn things.

If you freeze here, it won't mean that it will be frozen everywhere.  Progress could continue elsewhere and then you have a different discussion.  That discussion is how do you catch up when you are getting left behind.

Manufacturing jobs were created when someone got the idea that products could be made in greater quantity and at a better price than what was available before.  There's a principle involved here.  The principle is wealth creation.  The way to produce wealth is continual improvement over current methods.  The production of wealth is the best way to keep what you've got.  Once you stop doing that, you are living on the progress that has already been made.  In that way, wealth is consumed.  Eventually, if no new wealth is created, one finds oneself back in poverty.

The best jobs program is the production of wealth.  The worst jobs program is stopping wealth production.  For the poverty stricken do not hire, nor pay good wages.  Facts are stubborn things.  No one is exempt.