Adrian Ch.9

Q: Why is the saying, "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" true, what part of our Democratic society allows for this to continue?

A: "In England and America such restrictions, especially those affecting the intermediate strata of society, have assumed important dimensions only in comparatively recent times, and we have scarcely yet realized their full consequences. The utter hopelessness of the position of those who, in a society which has thus grown rigid, are left outside the range of sheltered occupation, and the magnitude of the gulf which separates them from the fortunate possessors of jobs for whom protection against competition has made it unnecessary to budge ever so little to make room for those without, can be appreciated only by those who have experienced it. It is not a question of the fortunate ones' giving up their places, but merely that they should share in the common misfortune by some reduction of their incomes, or frequently even merely by some sacrifice of their prospects of improvement. The protection for their 'standard of life,' of the 'fair price,' or the 'professional income' to which they regard themselves as entitled, and in the protection of which they receive the support of the state, precludes this. In consequence, instead of prices, wages, and individual incomes,it is now employment and production which have become subject to violent fluctuations. There has never been a worse and more cruel exploitation of one class by another than of the weaker or less fortunate members of a group of producers by the well-established which has been made possible by the 'regulation' of competition. Few catch-words have done so much harm as the ideal of a 'stabilization' of particular prices (or wages), which, while securing the income of some, makes the position of the rest more and more precarious."(Hayek, p.143). The unfair status between those with and those without a protected income is only held fast by regulations set by the riches ancestors.