In the July 30 Democrat debate, several unworkable schemes and hackneyed themes kept re-emerging.  But the most dangerous common refrain was (essentially) that "not everyone has benefited equally" and "some people are still being left behind" and "we must close the wealth gap."  Implicit in these shop-worn phrases, that predictably went unchallenged by the immoderate moderators, was the progressive holy grail that until all people are rendered equal in all aspects, society will remain a hellish, rotten fiasco.

It is obvious that most politicians are not even minimally trained in scientific disciplines, but have these fools never once heard of a bell-shaped curve, otherwise known as a normal distribution curve?  Of course, some of the more intelligent ones have, but in order to pander to numerous unintelligent potential voters, they must continue to pretend that all people can be equal, now and in the future.

Image credit: Needpix.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" is a well known slogan popularized by Karl Marx in 1875 and historically loved by progressives.  Implicit in its phrasing is the understanding that people have different abilities.  Marx didn't say, "From each no matter what his ability, to each according to his needs."  That wouldn't work.  Doctors have certain abilities that are needed by the sick; a hod carrier could not satisfy that need.  Vagrants camped out on Flower Street in Los Angeles don't have the same ability to offer viable jobs as successful entrepreneurs can.  From each according to his ability!

Humans judge each other along a bell-shaped curve.  If the demonized top one-percenters were magically teleported off the surface of the Earth and blasted into deep space, in the very next instant, a new "top one percent" would be identified and targeted, and the exact same envy-based hatred would resurface among those remaining.  Then the only difference would be that the new one-percent strata would be less well equipped to create, develop, produce, discover, design, devise, and invent all manner of useful knowledge and products that improve life for all.  The remaining 98 percent would suffer incrementally more until the next purge and putsch, born of envy, would ratchet progress down yet another notch, until, finally, all would be rendered equal in squalor and misery.

Equality of opportunity?  Of course!  Naturally!  Thus it has always been in law if not always flawlessly in practice since America's founding.  Equality of outcome?  Please reference Stalin, Castro, Mao, and Maduro before voting for those who would try yet again to thwart the laws of reason and nature, ensuring disastrous results for all.