Many of us may recall loving Dr. Seuss when we were growing up. Especially, the Sneetches. The Sneetches lived on beaches, played games, roasted some Dr. Seuss variation of sausage, and enjoyed their days basking in the sun. However, some of them had stars on their tummies and some of them did not. Those who had stars could go to parties and have loads of fun, whereas those who had none were not invited and had to sit and watch the star-belly Sneetches live an extravagant and awesome life.
This can be an example of the wealth gap in the states. The star belly Sneetches are the wealthy, who have ferraris, diamond necklaces, Dior perfume, and so on and so forth. The Sneetches without the stars are the common man, who look upon the star belly Sneetches with envy. Sneetches aside, Rick Kelo discusses on his website how the wealthiest people produce something that the common man wants to buy. In his article, cowritten with Spike Evans, he goes into depth on why there is an income gap, which is due to certain talents being found in some people and not in others. Why should we pay a brain surgeon, with higher education and the ability to save your life, the same pay as a bus driver, a job that ca
n be performed by anyone?
If we continue with the Sneetches story you may remember Sylvester Mcmonkey Mcbean, the fix-it-up chappie, who arrives on their beach and supplies a demand for stars. He promises that it is cheap, quick, and 100% guaranteed. Sounds very similar to an infomercial or advertisement we have seen before. However when the already starred Sneetches see this, they decide that having stars is no longer the “in” thing and demand to have this removed. As the demand for his services rises, so does the price of his product until it becomes too expensive for the Sneetches to afford. Sylvester Mcmonkey Mcbean leaves the beach with all their money in his truck.
Imagine all that money on Sylvester’s truck is the United States savings. In his article with Spike Evans, Rick Kelo explains that if there truly was balance; where the employer paid his worker everything and the employee spent all the money. The money being spent would, actually, be leaving the economy rather than furthering it. This creates a recession. Whereas, if the employer saved his money and paid his workers less, then the economy wouldn’t struggle. Rick Kelo further adds that iIn the United States we continue to demand for more public rights, but we don’t have any savings to pay for them. We’ve become like the Sneetches left on the beach after Sylvester took all our money and we are no longer able to buy ourselves anymore stars. If you are interested in more of Rick Kelo’s view points on the United States economy you can check him out on Rick Kelo- Exposing the Fault Lines of Our Economy.