Distributive Equality

Distributive Equality

What is distributive Equality? Looking at a part of the Declaration of Independence "All men are created equal". Does this mean the two men most responsible for writing the Declaration were identical? That answer is an astounding no. (Gosepath) "that men are equal is not to say that they are identical. Equality implies similarity rather than ‘sameness.’" John Adams was not a good writer, and was obnoxious, while Thomas Jefferson was an excellent writer and could get along well with people. John Adams was born to a poor farmer; he was self-educated and did not own slaves. While Thomas Jefferson was born to a wealthy plantation owner, and he went to all the best schools, and he owned slaves. They did however conspire to set up the end of slavery in the United States which happened 80 years later. (Making p 12)

So why did they write that all men were created equal, when in fact they were from so different on a social scale, educational scale, and a silver spoon scale? (Gospath) "In the modern period, starting in the seventeenth century, the dominant idea was of natural equality in the tradition of natural law and social contract theory. Hobbes (1651) postulated that in their natural condition, individuals possess equal rights, because over time they have the same capacity to do each other harm. Locke (1690) argued that all human beings have the same natural right to both (self-) ownership and freedom." They were equal because God made human beings equal, but unique. They were equal because each man or woman owns himself or herself. Each human being has the responsibility to mold himself or herself into whatever they wish.

Now we have a new attitude, that is very pervasive from the government that says "you do not have to take responsibility for yourself. Congress votes to take from one group of people, the workers, and give to another group, the non-workers. We have 535 people in Washington that have placed themselves above the law. That is, they do not have to follow the same rules as the common folk who pay the congress. (Kroft) members of Congress can legally trade stock based on non-public information from Capitol Hill. You or I do that, because we are not part of that caste, we go to jail. Then they vote to add more money to welfare. Porto Rico gets the largest welfare check in the nation. Obama is using this to his advantage, (Obama) "With this in the mind, the President saw an opportunity to make headway in the latino vote by being the first sitting President to visit Puerto Rico in five decades." It is great that we are required to take an ethics class to get a masters degree. Perhaps we should require our elected officials to do the same before they are allowed to be seated, after their election.

The ethical responsibility of government is to protect its citizens from invasion and to protect our natural rights, such as the right to free speech, the right to assembly, the right to be safe from government intrusion into our homes. The purpose of government is not to regulate the amount of water in your toilet. It is not there to tell us what kind of light bulbs we can have. Government must be limited to the bare necessities of protecting our liberties, then get out of the way and let us grow. Government is limited to 20 enumerated powers in Article I; Section VIII of the United States Constitution. It is not the purpose of government to protect our economy, because government is unable to do that. Government can only destroy an economy, and our government is destroying ours. When we have over 80 thousand pages of tax regulations, many of them conflicting; that drives companies out to other countries. When we have the highest corporate income tax in the world; that drives companies to other countries. When we have administrations that have energy policy's that boast stupidity, then we stifle creativity. Jimmy Carters energy policy was a sweater, while Obama's energy policy is a tire gauge. When we have a president that says "read my lips; no new taxes" then raises them, that breads distrust. When we have a president that states under oath "I did not have sex with that woman", then the woman proves he lied; that fosters class division.

Resources

Gosepath, Stefan, "Equality", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/equality/>.

Making of America, the. National Center for Constitutional Studies. (2010) www.nccs.net. West Juniper Road, Malta, Idaho 83342.

Kroft, Steve. Congress: Trading stock on inside information. CBS News (November 2011) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-inside- information/

Obama seeks votes in largest US welfare colony - National Finance Examiner | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/finance-examiner-in-national/president-obama-seeks-votes- largest-us-welfare-colony#ixzz1rh3fimRN