The Occupy Wall Street movement protesters—as well as Obama and the Democrats—are fixated on what they say are “the rich 1%,” as opposed to the noble and deserving “99%”.
Their aim is woefully off, as anyone with some knowledge of Austrian economic theory and historical analysis can explain. But they’ve never read an Austrian School economist, such as Ludwig Von Mises (pronounced MEE-zezz)—or reject that school of thought as extremely dangerous to their interests—with the Ruling Class attitude expressed above. LOL.
But don’t get me wrong! There is an “evil 1%”! And their rapaciousness and oppression must be confronted and dealt with. That much is true. But…
…the “1%” are neither rich entrepreneurs, nor rich business-owners, nor rich captains of industry, nor any who have become rich through their own effort and smarts. No! The evil and oppressive 1% throughout history has always consisted of “the ruling 1%” of the political class.
Daniel Sanchez of the Ludwig von Mises Institute limned it quite clearly earlier this year in the Mises Institute’s pamphlet-magazine, The Free Market: In an essay he explained it thus:“Throughout most of the history of civilization, the ruling 1% took for itself a huge portion of what the 99% produced. And if any private person ever accumulated enough wealth for it to be noticeable, some potentate would snatch that too….With such rampant government confiscation, there was never enough incentive for large-scale capital accumulation. Without large-scale capital accumulation, there can be no mass production. And without mass production there can be no great improvements in the lives of the masses.”
It takes a Marxist or an Ivy League college professor—but I repeat myself—to fail to see those simple historic and economic truths. Sanchez’s excellent essay is entitled “The 99 and the 1.” Well worth reading