http://www.nationalreview.com/node/425803/print The Democrats’ Preoccupation with Inequality
The Left won’t admit this, but it isn’t always a moral problem.
By Dennis Prager — October 20, 2015
If you want to understand today’s Democratic party, a word search of the Democrats’ debate last week provides a pretty clear picture.
Here is how many times certain key words were spoken:
Wall Street: 23
Tax: 20
Inequality: 9
Wealthy: 7
Now, compare the number of times other national concerns were mentioned:
ISIS: 4
Terror/ists/ism: 2
Defense: 2
Military (excluding Jim Webb): 1
Freedom: 1
Debt (national): 0
Liberty: 0
Strength: 0
Armed forces: 0
Islamist/Islamic: 0
Material inequality is the predominant concern of the Democratic party. Indeed, material inequality has been the predominant concern of the Left since Karl Marx.
This raises two questions: How important is material inequality? And if it is not that important, why does it preoccupy the left-wing mind?
The answer to the first question is: It depends.
It depends, first of all, on the economic status of the poorer members of the society. If the bottom percentile of society has its basic material needs met, then the existence of a big gap between its members and the wealthiest members of the society is not a moral problem.
But if the members of the bottom rung of society are in such an impoverished state that their basic material needs are not met, and yet there is a supremely wealthy class in the same society, then the suffering of its poorest class renders that society’s inequality a moral problem.
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