The Happiness Pool

Merry Christmas!

I hope this season you are happy, but not too happy, because liberals would remind us that one person's happiness comes at the expense of another.

Think about that. Their is a fairness quotient that drives the progressive ideology - make everyone equal and there will be no jealousy or envy, and then everyone will be happy. In that way there is a pool of happiness - a finite amount, and if someone is very happy you can be sure that someone else is equally miserable. In the mind of a progressive these extremes are linked by the societal pressures which permeate everyday life.

Consider people who are deeply religious. Studies show that those who attend church regularly are generally happier than those that don't. It's because they appreciate what they have relative to what's needed. Needs include God and family, food and shelter, and the opportunity to work to provide for oneself and one's family. Societal pressure says, you deserve more, regardless of your motivation to earn or achieve it.

Simple principles are akin to happiness; there's no mystery, and government cannot create happiness by trying to take it from some and give it to others. Atheist displays at city hall do not make atheists happy because they do it to spite Christians. Those people only sow contempt. They envy the happiness of Christians and are driven by their own unhappiness to want to steal it from others. The government does the same thing. I try not to fall into the "Taxation is theft" crowd, but think about it. If you're a small business owner you have a heavy tax burden. Imagine you own a winery. You work hard to build the trellises, plan the grapes, prune the vines, harvest the fruit, mash the grapes, add the sugars, tend the fermentation, separate the blends, bottle and package everything, then market it and transport the end product, and after all that work the federal government comes in and says, now give me my share. You're share of what? Government did not help in any aspect except to regulate how you have to do everything and then come in and demand their cut. They don't deserve one single penny, and yet if you refuse they shut you down. There's no equity in that, and then your hard-earned money goes to provide services you're unlikely to use, except for perhaps the security provided by the military.

So in that sense the governrment is little different from the mob. Ok, I get it, government is little more than voter-sanctioned organized crime. They are happiness thieves, like the Grinch who stole Christmas, but without the happy ending.