Dead at last!
You know what this means. New Dead Pool begins
Friday, 6pm Weasel Blog Time. Be there, or…you know.
Whatever.
September 19, 2011 — 9:06 pm
Comments: 31
Let’s not play that stupid Class Warfare game either, please
You’re probably seeing this graph and many others like it these days (don’t know who to credit for this one; there are a bunch of them out there). It’s an illustration of just how much of their “fair share” the rich are paying already. The top 5% are responsible for more than half the income taxes collected. The top 50% for nearly all of it.
The millionaires and billionaires Obama has been wagging his finger at are precious natural resources. They invest money in companies, they build businesses. They’re general all-around rich bastards who travel and buy things and own things and employ people to do stuff for them (as a friend of mine once said, Mercedes mechanics have to eat, too). All of those things are fan-fucking-tastic for the economy.
Also, they’re rich. If you piss them off, they can afford to go away and take all their lovely job-creating money with them.
Okay? Okay.
But here’s the problem: these graphs are usually accompanied by text stating that, whatever it is, 40% of the people don’t pay taxes.
Bullshit! EVERYbody pays taxes (the graph is only about income taxes). Sales taxes, gas taxes, extra taxes on booze and cigarettes. Car tax and road tax.
And, really, most of us think of “taxes” as any money the government takes away. Social Security withholding for benefits you’ll probably never see. Quarters fed into parking meters. Licenses and fines and tickets and penalties (the poor are more likely to drive an old beater with a taillight out and live in a house that needs painting).
I spent some years bumping along at the bottom, doing that starving artist thing. I made shit money and lived in bad neighborhoods. Let me tell you, the working poor — the people trying to claw out a living without taking government benefits — they pay, and they miss every dollar of that money vividly. Let’s not alienate natural allies in the fight against huge and oppressive government.
Love the rich, but don’t be hating the poor.
— 7:23 pm
Comments: 28