Envy

Powerline’s recent post “Reflections On How Things Keep Getting Better” coincided with similar thoughts I’ve had on the destructive nature of envy. I recalled taking my kids home from Sunday School years ago where two had popcorn balls and one didn’t; the unfortunate one had braces and had to turn the treat down. Naturally this was disappointing. We had an interesting conversation revealing an all too common feature of envy:

“Its not fair”, she said, “they get popcorn balls but I can’t have any!”

“I know you are disappointed, but there are many foods you can’t eat right now” I replied

“Well it’s still not fair and they shouldn’t be able to have them either!”

To make things right for this young girl would require her brother and sister not to get popcorn balls as long as she didn’t have one, never mind the fact that it wouldn’t change her situation. No thought of “how fortunate it is my brother and sister have popcorn balls to enjoy.”

The politics’ of envy embraces this childishness. “The income gap is getting wider” and “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. If this is true, then does it follow that as far as living in the United States is concerned it was better to be poor in times past then to be poor now? I doubt it.

On the whole, our country has the highest standard of living but envy prevent many from seeing.