It’s About Economic Injustice, NOT Income Inequality

Either Rick Santorum is missing the point or he is deliberately putting up a red herring.  To miss the point is bad enough.  But, to deliberately skirt the real issue by changing the terms—thereby redirecting the subject—is far worse.

The issue is not about “income inequality.”  Yes, there will always be a difference in people’s income.  Thus, there will always be income inequality.  Yes, we do live in a “meritocracy” where people earn more than others because they work harder or smarter than others and because they have developed better abilities and skills than others.  But that is not the point.

The point, the real issue, is economic injustice, not income inequality.  There is a big difference between the two.  For example, tax-laws that stack-the-deck against the middle class and/or the little guy, in favor of the rich and powerful, is a matter of economic injustice.  Presently there are tax-laws and economic rules and regulations that favor the wealthy over against the middleclass.  The fact that Mitt Romney paid less than 15% tax-rate on the millions of dollars that he made in the past couple of years is a prime example of this economic injustice.

Rick Santorum says that he has no problem with “income inequality.”  Neither do I and neither do most Americans.  It is a given, it’s a fact of life.  It is the way the real world works.  In other words, “income inequality” is a non-issue Mr. Santorum.  But “economic injustice” is the issue: tax-laws should not favor the rich and powerful over against the middleclass.  The rich should be given no special breaks or be handed no special privileges.

Yet, the extremely wealthy are paying a lot less of their fair share of the tax burden, while the little guy is carrying more and more of the burden that this nation carries in terms of economic debt and obligations.  That is our problem.  This is the real issue.  As we all know.  Numbers don’t lie.  It is a fact.  The rich are getting richer while the middleclass is shrinking and the poor are getting poorer.  This is a result of economic injustice, economic laws and regulations that favor the wealthy.  It is not a mere matter of differences in income or “income inequality” as Santorum puts it.

So, Mr. Santorum, what do you have to say about economic injustice?  Are you just being naïve and missing the point altogether?  If so, this is a problem: You are not getting it!  Or, are you throwing up a red herring so as to avoid the real subject affecting our economic woes.  If this is the case, it becomes a question of motive and integrity.