There are 400 Americans that have $1.57 trillion between them, which is as much as 50% of the US population. That’s one group of 400 with $1,570,000,000,000, or $3.92500 billion apiece and 153,503,275 Americans with $0.00001 billion apiece. Somehow, the PR firms hired by the top 400 and their ilk have managed to make this fact seem to be a justification for taxing the people with $0.00001 billion more and the ones with $3.92500 billion less. That’s not right.
In the game of divide and rule, the minority at the top must fracture the majority in as many ways as possible, so that it does not unite and topple the minority. With wealth, this is easily done. The pattern is repeatable: mercenary security forces provide muscle and a few of the majority are invited to partake of a crumb or two so that they become boosters for the supposed prosperity afforded by going easy on the people with wealth and power. Meanwhile, racial, religious, and gender divides are exploited with opportunistic propaganda fomented by agents provocateurs in the pay of the rich. They just have to start the ball rolling. They don’t have to go along for the ride.
When I see emails that try and make it sound that the rich are victims, I become angry. It’s a lie. How can a person that buys and sells congressmen and judges and regulatory agencies be a victim? These guys will avoid taxes however possible just so they can keep a bigger pile of goodies for themselves. They probably don’t know what people who have to have a pan card seva go through to earn money and did they earn their pile on their own? Not likely. Inheritance is the number one way to make money in the USA, followed by interest earnings. Of course, for every dollar collected in interest, a dollar is paid in interest, and the poor pay those dollars. Even when a rich man borrows from another rich man, his interest payments are passed on to the poor as part of the prices of the goods and services he provides. A poor man with zero debt will still be paying interest. Interest is money made off of someone else’s labor. Kinda like what a vampire does, only with money and only in real life.
For every “Top x% of earners pay y% of our taxes” I see, I want to shout that that x% is earning more than y% of the national income. They’re not paying their fair share in a straight proportional scale and when you consider how much tax is already claimed in the form of widow’s mites, it’s revolting to see people try to paint the rich as victims.
Cherry-picked statistics are some of the most effective propaganda out there. Watch out.
Almost half of the population pay no income taxes. Yes, they pay interest on loans. So Dean, how do you propose to right this wrong?
Well, income tax started by taxing only the top 4% by income. We need to get back to that, and to get back to where that group actually pays taxes instead of hires politicians to write loopholes in the tax code.
Sadly, I don’t see any hope for uber-patriotism among that wealth class. They’ve demonstrated time and again that they’re going to dodge their responsibilities while demanding that everyone else own up to theirs. Government itself shouldn’t be sponsoring a construct that demands a constantly expanding population to fund – sadly, the nation is so hooked into those arrangements that ending them would be a very delicate matter, to say the least.
But the wheels are coming off. The outrage of Wisconsin, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece, Spain, France, and England all share a common denominator: people are no longer content to tolerate people at the top that flaunt the law. If those people cannot be replaced, then the people at the base of society will see no benefit in participating civilly in that society.
Voter apathy is a product of frustration. Popular protest and rioting is a product of no other path presenting itself as a viable alternative. The leaders of the nation must lead, and since they have instead chosen to feather their own beds, they will reap the whirlwind.
I see the reasoning behind being angry when the rich are pegged as victims, but I think the sentiment behind most peoples’ anger is that those who are hard working and earn their income through sweat and labor are upset when they have to cover for those who are unemployed and highly in debt. This doesn’t necessarily address the richest of the rich, but just a regular working class man, who often suffers the most.
Since I’m pretty sure the government realizes there are these loop holes in the tax codes, why don’t they act to close them? I understand that the rich class also controls big businesses and could threaten to move their company abroad, but isn’t that just a risk our government needs to take? With so many more willing consumers in America and also taking in account of their reputation on the line if they follow out with their threat, isn’t that just more incentive to close the loop hole?
Like Denise said, I think the majority of the rich people who are feeling victimized are the people who are actually working hard for their good pay like doctors, lawyers, etc. The majority of the people who are upset are the ones who spent a bunch of extra time studying in school so that they can have a better income in their life, and are now having to pay for the high school drop-outs.
I’m sure a portion of the wealthy minority do actually work for their income and have spent a lot of their time getting a quality education. But many of these people have not earned an honest living and try and bend the rules just because they can. I would understand if the working class man was frustrated but i think the richest of the rich can afford to give a little of their income so the po’ aren’t suffering.
I understand that there are always going to be those people that can get what they want but, why can’t the government attempt to control these “privileged” peoples actions. At least they could conceal them because there is no way the lower classes will ever be content that they pay a higher percentage than others.