The law of conservation of matter and energy states:  matter (energy) can not be created or destroyed, only changed in form. What this says is that there is a fixed amount of matter (energy) in our universe, and it can only be either converted into energy, or said energy back to matter.

I wonder if this general idea applies to the creation of wealth?  Ayn Rand and her ilk would have us believe that wealth is created from above by the so-called “risk takers” and trickles down from upon high to the stagnant masses below. If wealth is analogous  to matter, it (potentially) dwells in the back of the ditch digger: the hands of the mechanic; the tools of the carpenter; the arms of the assembly line worker; the minds of the engineers, and so on.

As matter is transformed into energy, so is manual labor transformed into capital. That transformed wealth (capital) is captured by Wall Street, the lions’ share siphoned off and the waste trickled down.  If wealth is generated from the bottom up, the Golden Goose is but a myth.

Taxation seems to be  lethal to the “Golden Goose”.