Mr. Fraker and other participants in the welfare study industry were surprised. They shouldn't be. But tell them credibly that their welfare will end soon or kick them off, and they'll come up with ways of earning a living. Americans are doing as well as they are because a million or so of us are making a lot of money figuring out how to create new products and new ways to increase our productivity. Fortunately, even with these barriers in place, former welfare recipients are making it.
Some people think it's unfair that income is distributed so unequally.
But in a free society, income is not distributed. Instead, Michael Jordan wakes up every morning, as he has for more than fifteen years, with a fierce determination to stay in tremendous physical shape, practice for hours a day, and be the incredibly competent athlete that he is. Then millions of basketball fans and consumers decide, one by one, to spend a little more time watching Michael on TV or a few dollars more for the products he advertises. Whenever you hear that 20 percent of households receive almost half of all income, what is really meant is that that 20 percent produces almost 50 percent of all output. Of course, this is not a totally free society, and the government uses its coercive powers to take from people at every income level to give to others at every income level.