Political Quotes

“``fairness'' has become one of the watch words in this year's political debates, both at home and abroad. The term echoes throughout Europe, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure to come up with billions in bailouts for troubled eurozone countries. Her insistence on reasonable reforms is considered unfair by many in those countries, even though Germans have sacrificed to live within their means, for example, by forgoing wage increases to avoid the problems of their neighbors. In the United States, President Obama and his supporters have used fairness as a justification for various redistributionist policies, including a massive tax hike, a government takeover of health care, complex financial regulations, and new government spending programs. The President and his supporters believe the Federal Government should pursue policies that will result in economic equality. But forced equality is inherently unfair. It necessarily relies on the wrong incentives that penalize success. More fundamentally, it is based on a shallow, materialistic definition of ``fairness.'' Aristotle wrote: ``The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.'' Contrary to the goal President Obama pursues, the key determinant of lasting happiness and success is not whether you have as much money as your neighbor, regardless of the differences between you.…”