Leftists like the phrase “victimless crime” when they’re trying to decriminalize destructive behaviors such as prostitution or using dangerous drugs. However, if they were to use the phrase correctly, economic inequality, which they talk of as it were a crime, is the true victimless crime.

Think about it: Who is harmed by economic inequality?

Bill Gates is a blabbering boob on any topic other than computers, yet he has a very large paycheck. However, that paycheck does not have any effect on my paycheck, or anyone else’s paycheck -- except that the size of his paycheck makes it possible for thousands of other people even to have a paycheck.

Despite this obvious fact, the Harris-Biden administration has added ending inequality to its mission, along with open borders, gun-grabbing, gender confusion, and all the rest of the far-left agenda. Income redistribution, naturally, will be the tool to effect the cure.

Politicians firmly believe that, if you take money from one person and give it to another, the recipient will be better off and will reward you with his vote forever, or as long as the cash continues to flow.

Life, of course, is not that simple.

Just trying to measure inequality is rife with problems. Are we talking about wealth inequality, income inequality, or consumption inequality?

Those who claim to measure these things usually avoid consumption inequality, as there is much less of it. Nevertheless, they willingly tackle the first two, even though they are notoriously difficult to quantify.

Despite all its intrusions into your financial affairs, the government doesn’t really know the extent of your wealth. So, economists do what they often do – estimate.

In a paper published last year by the Cato Institute, John H. Cochrane detailed the problem and concluded that wealth taxes would do more harm than good. Furthermore, “a wealth tax is a very inefficient way for the government to raise money,” he said. This is one reason Europe has abandoned them.

American leftists, however, have no qualms about adopting failed policies.

They believe that wealth equals power and that only politicians should have power. So, the golden goose that makes their “compassion” possible must be killed or seriously wounded.

But even aside from the fact that it is a poor policy, there is the larger point that it seeks to cure a problem that does not exist. Rich people don’t make poor people poor, and as the famous quote goes: “You don’t make the poor rich by making the rich poor.”

Contrary to Biden’s beliefs, capitalism is the solution, not the problem. According to the World Bank, the percentage of extremely poor people in China in 1981 was 88.3%. Then it began allowing free enterprise. By 1990, extreme poverty had fallen to 66.2%. By 2015 only 0.7% of the Chinese population was living in extreme poverty.

If the Biden administration really wants to rid America of economic inequality, maybe it should do more to emulate the Chinese communists.

IMAGE: Redistribution of wealth. Quotemaster poster.

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