Rick Lowe

One often hears people speaking negatively about those people that have become successful as a result of their hard work and ingenuity.

People seem to have the impression that the wealth of the rich is taken from the poor, so those of us that are still paying mortgages, or are worse off, can never succeed.

To paraphrase Dr. John Hospers wealth is not static. It's not like we're in a lifeboat and when I eat all the supplies you have none. Wealth is created by the private sector or individuals from the private sector, definitely not the government.

If wealth was fixed how come we have so many new millionaires and successful people?

To quote Dr. Hospers directly:

"No, the world is not like a lifeboat. Wealth does increase, and it increases for all as a result of the efforts of a few creative men (and we should add women these days). The riches of the rich are not the cause of the poverty of the poor: the rich in a free enterprise society can become rich only (1) by hiring workers to produce something and (2) because these consumers on a free market choose to buy what the entrepreneur has offered. They are rich precisely because innumerable consumers have, through their purchases, voted for whatever product or service they have to offer. Not one penny of their income on the free market came from the taxed income of anyone else."

The point is, when entrepreneurs become unsure as a result of changing public policy they do not invest and we are all worse off!

Do you have two cents to offer in this discussion?