SACRAMENTO, CA - State Senator Richard Alarcon, accompanied by actor Ed Begley, has launched the Select Committee on the Status of Ending Poverty in California. For those unfamiliar with the historical reference, it dates from the 1930s.

Upton Sinclair, author (The Jungle) and socialist, keystoned a 1934 run for governor around his EPIC campaign - End Poverty in California. He lost, but his campaign still holds appeal with the state’s ruling class. “We should rejuvenate that movement,” says Alarcon, a San Fernando Democrat, who explains that “we can end it [poverty] if we seek it as a specific goal.”

Sinclair’s concept was to have the government take over just about everything. That had been tried under Lenin and Stalin, but did not eliminate poverty. The new committee is likewise doomed to failure because it asks the wrong question.

Alarcon, the senate majority whip, is at pains about the cause of poverty, which he says is greed. Actually, it isn’t, and even if it were, the government could not eliminate this vice, any more than it could eradicate lust, quash anger, or boost self-esteem, something it once attempted.

For most of history poverty has been the natural condition of humankind. Overall, wealth is the exception, not the rule, and the real question is what causes it. Greed does not create, nor is it tied to natural resources. Wealth flourishes through the work ethic, the rule of law, and a market economy that rewards effort, creativity, and entrepreneurship.

Wealth does not flourish under statist arrangements that confiscate the fruits of labor from the productive and transfer them to the unproductive. Yet this is what the select committee, dominated by liberal Democrats, has in mind.

“I think there is simply too much wealth in the hands of too few people,” Alarcon said at the October 21 launch of his committee. The speaker did not indicate if millionaire actor Ed Begley was one of the guilty. Nor did he indicate any place on earth where the wealth breakdown was more to his liking. The senator was joined by union bosses, activists, and self-proclaimed poverty fighters, none of whom made any specific recommendations. Sen. Alarcon, however, said he would explore “restraints on greed wherever possible.” This can only mean more taxes and regulation, which raises an interesting point.

To seek to retain what one has earned through honest labor is not greed. But to seek more of what other people earn, without providing any increased service in return, does indeed qualify as greed. The committee will beat the drum for expanded government greed in the form of higher taxes. It will also serve as a wailing wall for accredited victims and the grievance elite. This will do nothing to alleviate poverty.

If they want to reduce poverty, the committee should explore ways to lower taxes, reduce regulations, boost entrepreneurship, and privatize government services. These measures would trim waste, help stem the flight of businesses from this state, and increase the number of jobs.

K. Lloyd Billingsley is editorial director of the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco. He can be reached via email at klbillingsley@pacificresearch.org.