Class warfare

From Practical Economics

The art of government or politics must be factored into the incentives and behaviors of politicians. Class warfare is the tool of choice used to promote the ideology of income redistribution. By pitting one social group against another, politicians divide and conquer not only a peoples unity but also their wealth. Instead of creating a community of purpose and shared economic understandings, politicians tell the poor or the "have-nots"they are looking out for their concerns against the greedy and wealthy "haves."

At the same time, guilt is either self-inflicted or placed on the part of the wealthy that further promotes the rift. By playing on the less fortunates sense of emotions, unfairness, and entitlement, a symbolic divide is created so the politician can extort votes based on the very warfare they created. Sadly, none of this has anything to do with economic efficiency and everything to do with power, control, and utopian visions of social engineering.

A quote often attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler, sums up the dangers of class warfare. "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by dictatorship."