It's been an interesting week in politics... Obama is castigating the Republicans for not passing his "jobs bill" while the Democrats are not bringing it to a vote in the Senate (which they control). The "usual suspects" are "occupying" Wall Street without a clear idea what they want (something about "those greedy bankers" that Obama gave money to in the bailouts).I never knew it was a crime to be rich before. I thought everyone wanted to be rich. My dear mother always wanted to be rich. Heck, I'd like to be rich. I just never wanted to make the effort required. Now that I think about it, I have never met anyone who would have minded being rich. When I was living in West Palm Beach, I had a friend who used to rant and rave about sports stars getting millions of dollars. He thought they were grossly overpaid. I used to just ask him how his life would have been any better if they weren't paid so much. That usually shut him up.
Everyone seems to be complaining. I'm not. Well, maybe a little. I am not unhappy with the division in politics, I figured that's how the system was designed. That was based on my knowledge of history. I always thought the worst thing that can happen to a nation is when all the politicians agree and cooperate. That's how it was in the old Soviet Union (and may soon be again if Putin gets his way) and how it is in China and Cuba. We could have that here... all we need to do is outlaw all political parties but one. Then everyone in Congress will get along and cooperate.
Back to the rich... They are the ones who run the businesses and employ people. And start and fund charities. And buy the high end items that other rich people's businesses make using the labor of the rest of us. You know that flat panel TV you just bought? You know how it got cheap enough for you to buy it? Because rich people bought them first for outrageous amounts of money and created a demand which meant that other rich people who ran electronics companies would try to meet that demand. Then, of course, they ran out of rich people to pay the high prices and had to make them cheaper so the rest of us could buy them which would keep those electronic businesses alive.
On the one hand, we have people protesting the rich and, on the other, we have people mourning the passing of a Very Rich man named Steve Jobs. Know how he got rich? He sold very innovative products at high prices and controlled his patents well, suing anyone he thought was infringing on them. Did you know that Apple has some $70 Billion stashed away? Have you noticed those protestors are using iPhones and iPads and Macbooks to arrange their protests?
And people wonder why I am cynical...
4 comments:
Ever see the Seinfeld where he explains how there's good naked, and bad naked?
Naked lady combing her beautiful long hair -- good naked
Naked lady straining to open a jar -- bad naked
Naked man -- bad naked
It's the same with rich.
Rich person who earned the money inventing a nifty computer gadget -- good rich
Rich person who opened a great store or developed a useful new service -- good rich
Rich person who got their money cheating people in the financial markets -- bad rich
Rich person who got their money from buying political influence -- bad rich
The problem is obvious to me... The two "bad rich" types had to have been rich before they got to that point to do those two things. Not to mention that all the rich get painted with the same broad brush. It's a bit like saying there's "good poor" and "bad poor", isn't it? Can we say "stereotyping?"
Take a read here: http://www.money-zine.com/Investing/Investing/The-7-Top-Ways-Millionaires-Become-Wealthy/
I. for one, don't believe in class warfare, but I do believe that corporations and the meg-rich should, at the very least, pay their fair share. The argument that businesses can no longer prosper in the USA because of all the government regulations doesn't fly because corporations are making more profit now than ever before. The USA is in danger of becoming an oligarchy instead of a democracy and, as a student of history, I've read about this before. Whenever a small elite group seize control of a culture's wealth, that culture's decline is imminent. I want better for us. The Seventeenth century was Holland's golden age and they made the same mistakes we are currently making. Once a superpower, The Netherlands is now reduced to a minor footnote in history. Our country was made great by compromise, and from what I can see"compromise" is now a dirty word, at least with most of the Republicans.
And how much would that "fair share" be? Over 50% of all federal income taxes? That's what the top 5% are currently paying. "In 2002 the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of
taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual
income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (30.6 percent) of income."
[http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/incometaxandtheirs/a/whopaysmost.htm] The top 1% paid over 33%
"Tax the rich!" doesn't really work in the long run but it is a great rallying cry.
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