A Telling Day

A Telling Day
Posted by Butler Shaffer on October 6, 2011 02:32 PM

One of the television news channels informed me, late yesterday, that Steve Jobs had just died. It is always sad when truly creative people die, particularly a man still in his youth, and who had done so much to provide the fourth phase of the "information revolution" so many powerful tools with which to further decentralize our communications with one another. The work of his mind not only did more to foster human well-being than did the combined efforts of all social workers and self-styled altruists, but helped to generate billions of dollars in real wealth.

Shortly after watching this news report, I was informed of Sen. Harry Reid's contribution to the storehouse of economic ignorance: a proposal to impose an additional 5% tax on millionaires, a measure quickly embraced by Pres. Obama. With the economy in state-induced entropic collapse, why would any intelligent mind consider further taxing the earnings of those who have already demonstrated their capacities for generating wealth ­ such as the just-departed Steve Jobs ­ as a productive undertaking? Would the additional revenues be used to compensate the less-productive members of society (be it in the form of corporate or lower-income welfare)? Or, might it be used to further finance U.S. military efforts that destroy the lives and wealth of foreigners, so that American corporate enterprises can be handsomely paid to rebuild what government policy had reduced to rubble?

Within an hour of hearing such arrant nonsense, I went over to a neighborhood convenience store to make a purchase. In the line in front of me stood some 10 or 12 people, most of whom were purchasing lottery tickets. What a contrast: the death of a creative genius who had, through his own efforts, created billions of dollars in wealth, and many of my neighbors intent on investing in what has become the accepted means for enjoying riches: luck. But, then, my mind recalled the babblings of so many politicians, government officials, and members of the media; they, too, seemed to accept the proposition that the economic health of the country could be restored by luck ("somehow or other"), or by Ben Bernanke's resort to the magic of printing more money!

On this sad day, intelligent men and women will soon have occasion to realize just what a loss Steve Jobs's death means to a productive world.