The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 CAN WE SUSTAIN PROSPERITY? 37some people have larger incomes,better housing, and more propertythan others, and such a .conditionmay arouse envy and even hate, aswell as provide powerful motivationfor greater effort and productivity.But it is simply not a factthat America is a land of largescalepoverty and economic distress.The air is full of baloney atthis point. The attitudes of manyremind one of the tale of the gooseand the golden eggs. Present-dayAmericans are affluent, amazingly,when their condition is comparedwith the lot of their grandparentsand great-grandparents, to go backno further. Let the complainerstry to find examples of families atthe bare subsistence level; they'llhave trouble in locating a singlecase. When· the writer was ayoungster, in contrast, .there werehouseholds in many neighborhoodswhere at times perhaps the onlyavailable foodstuff was corn-meal- and not much of that. And thepeople suffering real privation inthose days were often still tooproud and ambitious to expect tobe taken care of by either theneighbors or any branch of government.Abject poverty - wherekeeping body and soul together isa problem - has almost disappearedin this country, and todaywe are arguing about the frills,not the necessities.I recall flying across Appalachiaone beautiful evening during theperiod when the hue and cryabout the pathetic state of theminers and their families was atits height. It was just at dusk, butfollowing the valleys at less thana mile up I. had a good view ofhundreds of cabins and smallhouses, both scattered and in thevillages along our route. And Iwas struck by the fact that therewas a television tower on almostevery home, including the shanties,and one or two cars standingin nearly every driveway (andthey didn't all look like jalopies).I realize that the presence of atelevision set and a· car doesn'tdemonstrate affluence, but neitherdoes it suggest a state of acutemisfortune and misery.With the campaign to abolish"poverty" now in full swing, mainlythrough the means of coercedtransfers from those with to thosewithout (by political definition)there is grave danger that therewill shortly be an accelerating reluctanceon the part of those providingthe wherewithal to continueto carryon for the benefit ofthe idle and nonproductive, andthat the resulting decline in outputwill produce a crisis that willfinally lead to a tyrannical dictatorship.Indeed, there is alreadysome evidence of slackening effort,on the part of those still workingand. paying taxes, in the face of