Rebekah Knechel: Sanders’ view not out of touch

George Will’s Oct. 19 column “Economic equality as moral imperative” got it wrong on almost every point.

First, rewards are set by political power. “Impersonal market forces” have no real existence, as the economy is not some force of nature but a creation of human beings, entirely dependent upon decisions made by human beings.

Second, Will seems to acknowledge the existence of only the well-off elderly who spent their lives accumulating wealth while ignoring the mass of elderly people who retired with very little.

Third, big government does not “inherently” serve the strong, but does so when government is corrupt and out-of-touch. The big government Bernie Sanders advocates is exceptionally in-touch.

Fourth, “family disintegration” as a scapegoat for inequality is degrading to hard-working single parents who, when given the opportunities Sanders advocates of quality education and living wages, are anything but “crippling to social capital.”

Finally, Sanders’ doctrine is identical to Frankfurt’s, “that everyone should have enough.” It is precisely Sanders’ focus on empathy that brought him to understand why so many people do not have enough: because a few people have so much. This is not envy – it is morality with empathy its driving force.

This story was originally published October 25, 2015 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Rebekah Knechel: Sanders’ view not out of touch."