"I believe this is the defining challenge of our time," Obama said in a speech at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress, a pro-Obama think tank. "It drives everything I do in this office,”
“The growing gap between rich and poor can be closed by actions ranging from an increase in the minimum wage to better education to following through on his health care plan, Obama said.”
The quote above was from an article in USA Today. If people care about the poor, they
will give their own wealth and encourage others to voluntarily do the same. Focusing
on inequality is more than just a legitimate concern for the poor: it’s an
attempt to inflame envy, as the sociologist Helmut Schoeck explained in his
book “Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior.” Schoeck demonstrated that almost all
intellectuals, poets, historians and philosophers through the ages condemned
envy and feared it as a persistent threat to society. Organizing society to
assuage envy kept humanity poor and on the edge of starvation until
Christianity tamed it in the 17th century, which led to the
industrial revolution.
