On Friday’s The Five, the gang took upu the question of income inequality in America. In one particularly enlightening exchange, Bob Beckel and Eric Bolling encapsulated precisely the problem with the whole discussion when it comes to liberals and conservatives:
Bolling points out to Beckel that while, yes, the rich got richer, the middle class and the poor got richer as well, since incomes rose across all earnings classes. Beckel’s response is classic American left.
“How can you say 15 years, the top 1% increase of income take home pay is 247% and middle class,over the same 15 years, is 15%? you’re saying that’s equal?”
And there it is. It is not good enough that the rising tide is lifting all boats. The left ostensibly wants the rising tide to turn your boat into a yacht of equal or greater value than every other boat. (I say ostensibly, because in reality they know, and are fine with, the idea that income redistribution just turns a rising tide into a devastating flash flood of income decimation. Just as long as nobody is rich, that’s super OK.)
It’s a short clip with a long history, and it perfectly illustrates the problem with the entire premise behind public hand-wringing about the so-called income gap.