Yes We Have No Bananas.

       Which would you rather have, income equality or opportunity equality? In order to have income equality the government would have to tax the wealthy very heavily and pass it on to those less fortunate. To have opportunity equality, government would still have to tax the wealthy in order to make the less fortunate have a better opportunity to become successful.
       Gov. Chris Christy made that very point the other day. Now, I'm no particular fan of his, but I have to agree that income equality could only be mediocre at best. But to level the opportunity field would require more finesse although it would allow a whole lot more people to prosper enough to help those who do not. The thing is, his party has not done any such thing.
       What's needed most for opportunity equality is to raise the level of education in America and eliminate the high costs of that education. It would require the expansion of SNAP (food stamps) and all nutritional help. Then, how do you arrange for poor children to have the advantages that only the rich currently enjoy, like home environments that foster practices like reading, exposure to the arts, and the myriad other perks wealthy children enjoy.
        But with all its challenges, opportunity equality is the best our country can do for all its citizens. The rich will still have the edge but everyone would be able to exercise their best attributes and profit from their best efforts. That's not true now. A poor child has little chance to receive the better education or put their better ideas to the test in  the marketplace. There's just too much inequality.
       Wouldn't it be nice if Democrats were to adopt this strategy?" Wouldn't it be nice if Republicans were adopt this strategy? Wouldn't it be nice if they actually wanted to accomplish these goals and were willing to make the hard choices to make these accomplishments possible? That's the trouble with dreamers. They actually thinks such accomplishments are possible in these times. But if we don't, we'll wind up a banana republic without bananas.