Wednesday, January 30, 2008

On Edwards' Departure from His Presidential Bid

Two points to make on this story about Edwards Ending His Presidential Bid.

First, in Edwards' exit speech, he says what is needed is a "little backbone" to affect change. But little is his word, and that is precisely their problem. The Dems have little backbone.

Secondly, Edwards makes a pledge to end poverty, which we know from his recent speeches, via handouts, increasing minimum wage, etc. This only makes matters worse for two reasons. One being it communicates the idea to people that they can make more money without changing their habits. Second, all increasing minimum wage does to the level Edwards is talking about is inflate prices.

The way to end poverty in an absolute sense is through exercising the dominion mandate. Meaning, the standard of living is improved through innovation in technology which encourage more spending and commerce. For example, the principle of free enterprise in America has enabled the poor and middle class to have a standard of living equal or better than the rest of the world.

However, relative poverty will never end this side of glory in a large "free" society such as America. That is to say, there will always be a gradient of wealth.

Countries like Switzerland can claim such high standards of living because, being a smaller nation, much of their populace import goods and exports innovation and services. A lesser percentage there is relegated to menial tasks that involve minimum wage.