I spoke to a number of college students at Christopher Newport University the other day.  I was encouraging them to believe that America is the land of unlimited opportunity; that 20% of the population will become winners and that the 80% are making decisions each and every day to stay average. (I also spoke of the massive conspiracy working against the winners but that’s for another day.)

The Washington Post has an editorial today that reinforces my remarks to the young people at CNU.

The report is out from the Congressional budget office about who is earning what and how much in taxes they pay.

Here it is, for anyone who doubts what I told the students:

The top 20% of earners earn 70% of all the money and pay 70% of all taxes. The top 1% of earners (earning more than $332,000) earn 28% of all of the money and pay a whopping 28% of America’s taxes.

I told the students that far from being “unfair” or something that needed to be “fixed” (i.e. inequality of earnings) this simply reflects that fact that 80% of any group are making personal decisions to not do the things that lead to an extraordinary life. Twenty percent do make those decisions and are financially benefiting from those decisions.

The Washington Post editorial does however miss the point of why so much earning power is accomplished by so few.

The paper makes these two statements:

(1) Nor is the system egregiously stacked against the wealthy — who, after, all, receive the bulk of the inc0me.

(2) Income inequality has widened for the past three decades, and it only makes sense for those who have benefited to pay more.

Here’s Post’s error:

The wealthy don’t receive anything or benefit from anything. The editorial makes it sound like a lottery.

By and large the wealthy earn income by producing something of value that someone else wants. It might be an idea…it might be a product… it might be a service…but the high wage earners are producers. This is what capitalism is all about.

The inequality is not an inequlity of opportunity. It is a difference, by and large, of life choices. Its not to be fixed but applauded…modelled…aspired to…