Burgess Owens: “I just want to reemphasize something I read from the editorial earlier: Some inequality is necessary if society wants to…”

“I just want to reemphasize something I read from the editorial earlier: Some inequality is necessary if society wants to reward investors for taking risks and individuals for working hard and well. But excessive inequality can break the spirit of those trapped in society's cellar--and exacerbate social tensions. We are not proposing a change in capitalism. We are not proposing an attack on capitalism. Capitalism is the way of the world. It is the best economy that mankind has been able to fashion. But capitalism should be tempered by democratic government. Democratic government should extol the necessity to make sure that there are safety nets, that the wealth is shared. When people go to work for Xerox or IBM or Microsoft, they do not take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. They do not have to be true to the doctrine expressed in the Declaration of Independence. The pursuit of happiness is not a concern of a corporation, per se. The pursuit of happiness of the American people is not their concern. The pursuit of profit is their business. But government must make certain that in the process of pursuing profits, corporations are part of a total society and that policies are promulgated where everybody is properly taken care of, not everybody shares equally but we have public policies which guarantee that everybody will have decent housing, public policies which guarantee that the opportunity to get an education will be provided.…”