Brooks: The Downside of Inciting Envy

"Fomenting bitterness over income differences may be powerful politics," writes Arthur Brooks, "but it injures our nation."

Envy has never really been part of the American psyche, argues Brooks, citing Alexis de Tocqueville—who long ago "marveled at Americans' ability to keep envy at bay, and see others' success as portends of good times for all"—and the Irish singer Bono:

“In the United States,” he explained, “you look at the guy that lives in the mansion on the hill, and you think, you know, one day, if I work really hard, I could live in that mansion. In Ireland, people look up at the guy in the mansion on the hill and go, one day, I’m going to get that bastard.”

"A national shift toward envy would be toxic for American culture," argues Brooks, and that shift seems to be occurring today.

The root cause of increasing envy is a belief that opportunity is in decline. ... People who believe that hard work brings success do not begrudge others their prosperity. But if the game looks rigged, envy and a desire for redistribution will follow.

This is the direction we’re heading. According to Pew, the percentage of Americans who feel that “most people who want to get ahead” can do so through hard work has dropped by 14 points since about 2000. As recently as 2007, Gallup found that 70 percent were satisfied with their opportunities to get ahead by working hard; only 29 percent were dissatisfied. Today, that gap has shrunk to 54 percent satisfied, and 45 percent dissatisfied. In just a few years, we have gone from seeing our economy as a real meritocracy to viewing it as something closer to a coin flip.

Brooks suggests two things to "break the back of envy and rebuild the optimism that made American the marvel of the world."

1. Build a radical opportunity agenda—"That means education reform that empowers parents through choice, and rewards teachers for innovation. It means regulatory and tax reform tailored to spark hiring and entrepreneurship at all levels, especially the bottom of the income scale. It means recalibrating the safety net to ensure that work always pays — such as an expansion of the earned-income tax credit — while never disdaining the so-called dead-end jobs that represent a crucial first step for many marginalized people."
2. Seek out aspirational leaders who never "vilify the rich or give up on the poor."—"Only a shared, joyful mission of freedom, opportunity and enterprise for all will cure us of envy and remind us who we truly are."