Let's Go Ahead and Redistribute the Wealth...

Or how about not. It may seem like an equitable and fair thing to do; redistributing all the wealth, but if you really give the subject an honest look, you would probably [if you bear any intelligence] conclude it is a silly idea.

Have you ever met someone that came into a great deal of money and just blew it right away on a car, cocaine, a crazy vacation in Vegas, doting on a love interest or any other number of ways to waste their fortuitous windfall? A couple of years or even a couple of months later you run into the same person and either the car is crashed, they ended up in jail and lost the rest of the money, they're broke, they owe the IRS, their love interest left when the money ran out, on and on and on it goes. In essence, and what I'm getting at, is that person did not have sufficient character to use that money to improve their lives and make wise choices with the abundance of resources that suddenly fell into their lap. Have you ever heard the old idiom "A fool and his money are soon parted?" Does my scenario remind you of this saying? All the time we see on television people who had won the lottery and it literally ruined their lives. They had no idea how to handle that much money and lacked either the character or the judgment on how to use their new-found wealth. As you can see, throwing rich people's money at everyone else will not solve the problem of poverty or anything else, for that manner.

What about all these young movie stars that suddenly become multimillionaires and A-List socialites seemingly overnight? Many of them lack the development in character, maturity and wisdom to handle the incredible wealth and accolades that come hurdling at them at breakneck speed. We see them get into drugs, taking their clothes off for the public to see, getting in trouble with the law, saying stupid things on television and a whole bunch of other bizarre and/or unwise things. Most end up piddling away their fortunes and wasting their lives.




I believe fortunes are best won through hard work, ingenuity, creativity and through developing one's ideas through learning. Even quickly-made fortunes can be a good thing if the recipient has the character to handle it. A wise pastor once said in a sermon that the possession of money magnifies a person's character and lifestyle. I have found this to be true.

The Bible tells us in Proverbs 21:20 "There is desirable treasure, And oil in the dwelling of the wise, But a foolish man squanders it." -New King James Version of the Bible, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.
It's an exceeding blunder to let an unwise person have control over resources because they will waste them. It is better instead, to help that person gain knowledge and understanding and to assist them in building character. Go to the source of the problem, which is a lack of character and wisdom, instead of throwing money at a person who will only waste it.

I know of an educated prediction which I have been exposed to in many places, most recently in church, which states that if the wealth were to be redistributed right now, in a surprisingly short amount of time it would largely end up back in the hands of the wealthy. This seems to reinforce what I am saying in this blog article; that redistribution of wealth is a silly idea and would result in more people being hurt than helped.

Why hate the rich? Jealousy is not a desirable attribute, but we now disguise it by calling it income equality blah blah blah. If you want to be wealthy and successful, pay your dues: come up with an idea no one has yet introduced, get educated, pay attention in school, don't break the law, work hard and don't have kids before you're married. In many cases, the problem is not a lack of wealth, it's a lack of character that is the problem; the character that drives people to make their own income and pave their own way to success. It is this type of character that often gives a person the ability and judgment to use their money wisely, to save for the future and help others with their resources, also. We don't need wealth redistribution, we need character and wisdom attribution. According to what I learned in my graduate economics class, wealth is created whenever one resource is converted to a high-level use. So in taking the money from those better prepared to handle it and giving it to people who are ill-prepared to handle it, we are actually destroying wealth. What are your thoughts on wealth redistribution?