the happy conservative

I’m a liberal.

I want to help my fellow man. I believe that all people should have the same opportunities. Everyone should be able to start on a level playing field and make it on their own talent. That’s true liberty, and that’s why I’m a liberal.

I feel guilty when I see a rich man in a Lexus driving by the homeless people on the Loop. We have inequality in this country, and everyone knows about diminishing marginal returns. Why can’t we take the additional money of the overly rich and give it to the destitute? The poor man with more money can finally get his education, get his car, get his life on line. The rich man drives a Stratus instead of a Lexus. Everyone is better off.

And luckily for me, the United States works this way. We tax progressively, and poor people benefit from the vast majority of government transfer payments. We’re working toward a more equal society. And I’m pretty happy about it.

I would really like to see equal opportunities within education as well. Consider the case of two students, Ann and Ben. Ann has a 3.94 and is a lock at Yale Law School. Things have really gone her way. Ben has been dealt a rough hand, and he’s sitting at somewhere around 2.3. He’s hoping to get picked up to do copy editing at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for 15 dollars an hour.

Now I ask, how is this fair? These are not equal opportunities.

But I have a solution. Why not work to adjust opportunities in college the way we do in the real world? I suggest scaling back Ann’s GPA to help Ben get a leg up in life. Set her back to about 3.5, and bump Ben up to 2.7. Sure, she’s going to have to go to Missouri instead of Yale, but her life isn’t going to be that different. The good thing is that Ben can now finally follow his dream of going to graduate school in Economics. Everyone gets to stay in school. Everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.

That’s equality.

That’s why I’m a liberal.