Cryptocurrency: Preserves Your Money Against Grubbing ProgDems

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Sat May 13 11:45:02 PDT 2023


ProgDems want to rob you of your money,
no different than any other politicians,
just more full of economic bullshit about it.


Progressives Want To Eliminate Wealthy Entrepreneurs But Need The
Wealth They Create

Authored by Lipton Matthews via The Mises Institute,

Being perceived as anti–working class is a cardinal sin in American
politics. Working-class people are seen as the unappreciated engine of
American growth. Hillary Clinton discovered this lesson when she was
criticized for calling Donald Trump supporters a “basket of
deplorables.” But interestingly, expressing contempt for the upper
class is quite tolerable.

Rich people are frequently ridiculed by comedians and depicted as
snobs in popular culture. Shows like SpongeBob SquarePants and The
Simpsons present affluent characters in an unflattering light. Such
characters are seldom portrayed as virtuous entrepreneurs who are
rewarded for delivering value. Usually, viewers are led to think that
the rich are the source of all social ills.

Typically, negative depictions of working class or poor people would
evoke controversy, but upward classism is tolerated. Sociologist
Rainer Zitelmann has written extensively on upward classism and the
rich in public opinion. Zitelmann’s research covers how rich people
are viewed in Western countries, and his findings are unsurprising.

According to the results of Zitelmann’s study, rich people, like other
minority groups, are often scapegoats who are blamed for social
malaise. However, he observes that the perception of the wealthy is
determined by education. In Germany, England, and America,
better-educated people have a more favorable view of the rich. A
possible explanation is that educated people have higher incomes and
are connected to the rich, so their views are more realistic and less
tainted by stereotypes.

Their education also makes it easier for them to appreciate the
significance of the rich in creating value for society. Social
enviers, by contrast, have warped perceptions of the rich. Zitelmann
documents that such people assign negative traits to the wealthy.
Because their views are shaped by a zero-sum mentality, envious people
think that when some gain others must lose.

Ordinary people benefit tremendously from the inventions of the
ambitious and intellectually gifted. The ingenuity of oilman John
Davis Rockefeller made the American economy more productive in the
nineteenth century, and today our lives are made more convenient by
the efficiencies of tech companies like Amazon and Google. Without the
traits of the rich, we would lack modern innovations.

But unfortunately, most people don’t differentiate the progressive
rich who accumulate wealth by delivering value for society from those
who increase their wealth by relying on government subsidies or
political connections. Hence, we are primarily concerned with the
value creators and their attributes that culminate in the formation of
dynamic businesses.

In undertaking his study, Zitelmann found that the rich are high in
conscientiousness and openness to experiences. Other studies assert
that rich people have a great propensity for risk. Most rich people
are entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs suffer from high failure rates, so
this indicates that people who excel in business are not just
competent but also perseverant.

The average person is not as tenacious as entrepreneurs who establish
dynamic businesses that positively transform living standards.
Essentially, wealth is the reward for providing value to society.
Instead of demonizing the rich, people ought to be thanking them for
enriching society with useful skills.

However, when envy is pervasive in society, rich people downplay their
success to thwart backlash. The downside of doing so is that success
is vilified rather than embraced. Societal progress is driven by the
passion of ambitious people, and it will come to a halt when the most
competent people are demotivated to succeed.

Zitelmann noticed in his study that countries like America and England
with a lower share of envious people have a relatively higher
proportion of millionaires. This is expected because in less envious
countries, the success of the rich motivates others to achieve.
Economic studies corroborate Zitelmann’s conclusion that the zero-sum
mentality of envious people saps industrial progress.

One study notes that economic equality fails to mitigate the effects
of zero-sum thinking because the possibility of some people becoming
more successful can reinforce zero-sum thinking. Redistributing wealth
won’t prevent the value-destroying consequences of envious behavior.

The zero-sum mindset that fuels envy will only be diminished when
societies promote economic freedom to afford more opportunities to
generate wealth.

When people are free to prosper, they become less likely to engender a
zero-sum approach to development and more appreciative of success
because it’s now a greater possibility. Rather than wealth
redistribution, the solution to envy is progress powered by economic
freedom.


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