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Dennis Gartman, of Gartman Letter fame, is feeling pleased with himself.
Really, really pleased.
Earlier this week, he regaled subscribers with a story about a chance encounter with a reporter in Canada.
We were in Toronto yesterday to speak to friends of our old and dear friend, Mr. Trevor Stein, at a program sponsoring a wonderful group in Israel: Beit Issie Shapiro. Google this group; it is a wonderful organisation. That, however, is beside the point.
After the meeting we were interviewed by a reporter who asked us a most pointed, left-of-centre question: "Mr. Gartman, what about the growing disparity between the rich and poor in the US, and the increasing dichotomy between what those at the top earn and those at the bottom? What of income disparity? How do you feel about that?"
We know that our answer caught the reporter wholly off guard, for he was, rather obviously, expecting us to reply something like this: "Well, that is indeed a problem, and perhaps something should be done about it, for after all, don't the young people in the Occupying Wall Street groups have at least this on their side."
And here is the answer. Eat your heart out Sarah Palin.
We celebrate income disparity and we applaud the growing margins between the bottom 20% of American society and the upper 20% for it is evidence of what has made America a great country. It is the chance to have a huge income"¦ to make something of one’s self; to begin a business and become a millionaire legally and on one's own that separates the US from most other nations of the world. Do we feel bad for the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the US? Of course not; we celebrate it, for we were poor once and we are reasonably wealthy now. We did it on our own, by the sheet dint of will, tenacity, street smarts and the like. That is why immigrants come to the US: to join the disparate income earners at the upper levels of society and to leave poverty behind. Income inequality? Give us a break? God bless income disparity and those who have succeeded, and shame upon the OWS crowd who take us to task for our success and wallow in their own failure. Income disparity? Feh! What we despise is government that imposes rules that prohibit or make it difficult to make even more money; to employ even more people; to give even more sums to the charities of our choice. That is what we despise"¦ oh, and next question please.
Jeez, Dennis, we don’t know where to start.
Related link: The Grantham manifesto – FT Alphaville
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