Class Warfare

I wonder if Obama's Class Warfare meme will be as successful as he hopes. Based on a conversation I overheard today at the nonStarbucks fair trade coffee shop I frequent, he might gain more votes with it than I might think. This was the topic of conversation:

A major fire burned the home of Idyllwild businessman Shane Stewart tonight. The large home was engulfed in flames for hours. No one was inside and officials were not aware of any injuries.

Naturally a portion of the conversation was along the lines of "Oh, how bad." But there was another thread to the conversation: "At least he can just move into another house he owns." You see Shane Stewart, an acquaintance and customer of mine at my hardware store, is successful. He is a real estate investor who buys and sells houses. He owns a local real estate sales company. He "owns" the city of Idyllwild as someone put it to me last week. 

Shane had developed an incentive program where if you shopped at one of his business, you could receive a discount at another. I was wanting a free movie ticket. (Shane owns the local theatre—if he was not subsidizing it, my guess is that it would close. He wants the theatre to remain so he invests.) I do not know the full story but a local eccentric complained about the program. The program ended because of the volatile nature of the complaint.

This seems to me to directly violate the tenth commandment. Here is the relevant command from Exodus 20 in the Message. 

¹⁷ No lusting after your neighbor's house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don't set your heart on anything that is your neighbor's.

What will the consequences of breaking the 10th commandment be? 

Make no mistake, commandment breaking is what it is, as class warfare is based on envy. It will have an inevitable consequence of less investment in the community. I too am a real estate investor. I would like to sell my property in Missouri, take my losses, and reinvest my assets here. But if I do, will I receive this same attitude? It makes me want to invest elsewhere. Palm Desert is just one hour away. 

Obama should want people like Shane and me to invest. Is investment worth it socially for the investor? Not so much. Personally I have decided to not make any investments unless I can do it without debt. This reduces investment and employment. If Obama wants me to invest he needs to give me incentives to invest and take risk. All Obama cares about is reelection. This is not a partisan issue. It was all Bush cared about too. 

Yes there are bankers who should go to jail and have not because of their connection to Obama. This is not a partisan issue. Yes there are bankers who should go to jail and have not because of their connection to Bush. 

I have seen some interesting opportunities out in my field—real estate. I will deleverage instead.