Income Inequality – Part One: Rule of Law

From Cicero to Augustine, from Adams to Martin Luther King, one of the principles of a just and prosperous society, is rule of law.

Rule of law posits that all men are equal under the law. Rule of law holds that if an action is immoral for an individual it is also immoral for an individual in government. No man is above the law. The Creator only has one ethic. He does not have one ethic for those in government and another for those outside of it. Indeed one need not be a believer to hold this idea. The atheist and the agnostic see indirectly in nature what the believer sees expressly in Scripture. It was this idea that led an individual from Virginia to pen seven words that form the basis for justice in a pluralistic society, “the laws of nature and Nature’s God.”  This is the only legal system of which I am aware that allows individuals in a pluralistic society to coexist in peace. The prosperity created as a byproduct of this idea attracted millions of the world’s “tired and poor” to our shores.

Rule of law is disregarded today not only by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VA) and Keely Mullen, National Director of the Million Student March, but by many of our friends. To them it is as out of fashion as three cornered hats. As styles and trends go, “divine right of kings” is “in”. Over the next few days I will add my “two cents” to the discussion of income inequality by addressing its cause, what I feel is being left out and how I think the discussion of income inequality should be properly framed. Ideas have consequences and if we are going to properly address inequality we must properly understand it.

Is there such a thing as “income inequality”?

Like Sen. Bernie Sanders I say “yes,” but this is where our views depart. Like economists from the Austrian economic school, I say we need to distinguish income inequality created by consumer demand and individual choice, from income inequality created by government violation of rule of law. One is moral and a natural part of a free society. The other is not.
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Read Part Two – Income Inequality and Consumer Demand

Eric Andersen is a member of the Central Committee of the San Diego County Republican Party and is the Co-Founder of the Republican Liberty Caucus of San Diego County and im2moro.com. He is a former Rock Church Citizen of the Year.