I have a good friend named Bill who is a very intelligent, hard working man.  I say this to preempt my next statement, that we hotly disagree very often on matters of politics and economics.  However, we always have stimulating (not that way you sickos) and thought provoking discourse.  So I wanted to share something that he posted on Facebook after a long, multi poster discussion about Occupy Wall Street.  I hope you enjoy it and that it expands your thinking.

Guys, I have thought about this a lot and the following are my own words (except the Aristotle thing). There are a lot of people talking about the inequality of wealth where some people acquire a lot more than others and this is definitely true. The weirdness starts when the proposed remedies are revealed like abandoning the principal equality under the law, confiscation of property for redistribution at the behest of an all powerful government which can only be justified when we are told that our fundamental liberty are derived from an omniscient government rather than a creator. I think that this is what Aristotle meant when he said, “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” As a just society we need to ensure equality of opportunity. We can definitely do a better job of this than we are right now. By dedicating ourselves to the concept of self determination, that we all possess the freedom to pursue a diversity of personal choices is a sacred and wonderful thing but we need to remember that there will also a diversity of outcomes based on the merit of our personal choices. I believe that a mandate of equality of outcome is destructive of freedom. We need to have a reasonable and compassionate safety net for children, the infirm, and the elderly but able-bodied and competent people in their 20s and thirties need to develop the opportunity before them of being the lucky 1% of the world’s population who were lucky enough to be born in the United States. There are billions of people elsewhere who truly live in abject (rather than relative) poverty who no doubt would literally give their right arm to have the opportunity just to be able to work in the lowliest job in our country. They know exactly what our ancestors knew that you have to start somewhere and if you work hard and smart and live virtuously in America that great things can be achieved. I believe that his is the American dream. It should never be given but it can be earned.