But those figures are highly misleading. The
average bottom-fifth household actually had net income of $50,901, not $4,908, after
accounting for substantial government welfare, gifts from charitable and family
sources, and modest taxes paid. The average top-fifth household, had net income
of $194,906, not $295,904, after accounting for substantial taxes paid. The
$194,906 is only 3.8 times greater than the bottom-fifth’s $50,902 – far less
than the aforesaid sixty times.
The top one-percenters are extremely
wealthy, of course. But most of them have made significant contributions. When
Microsoft founder Bill Gates retired in 2008, he was worth about $50
billion. This was probably a tiny fraction of the contributions Microsoft made to
the world’s GDP just in that year, never mind other years.
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The Spanish Flu in 1918 was much deadlier
than the current virus. Yet the U.S. economy was affected hardly at all,
because the government did almost nothing about it. Now, the panic aroused by government’s
intrusions and its other policies will cause an economic downturn considerably worse
than in 1918. Current medical science would have been able to handle the
current crisis without help. Big government usually causes more harm than good.
