The Deserving Rich

The argument among we peasants over increasing taxes on the rich is pretty fascinating. No one wants to give up services (at least the ones they personally benefit from), but very few seem to want to pay for them. Even more interesting, they don't want the rich to pay their share, let alone more on the excess that they collect. They don't believe in "income redistribution", although the last 30 years have seen a massive redistribution from the poor to the rich. Workers feel that you can't get blood from a turnip. That's right, you can't. But you can get blood from a leech! Especially from those who have engorged themselves for thirty years.

Ordinary people believe that people who work hard, or invent something popular, have a right to their millions. And they believe that people with millions must have worked hard or invented something useful. This is the flaw in the logic.

If inventing something popular makes you a millionaire, the inventor of TV and his family must be wealthy beyond belief, right? Wrong. How about air conditioning, which changed the demographics of the US? Wrong. If working hard makes you rich, underground coal miners and roofers should be millionaires. Wrong again.

Who is rich? Goldman Sachs executives, corporate raiders, the Walton family. People who rip off others, either at the workplace or in banking. When they show the "retention" bonuses that the elite get, then people get mad. When they hear about the obscenely rich Waltons screwing WalMart workers of their overtime, then they get mad. Show people the actual rich, and they realize that they don't deserve such wealth. But their imaginary rich are getting their just rewards.

There is great scorn placed upon the poor who blow their money on cigarettes, or junk food. Everyone has an opinion on how the undeserving poor should spend their money. People have no problem with taxes on "sins" like cigarettes, and some states seem to think that they can balance their budget on the backs of smokers alone.

But let some rich guy buy a company, lay off its workers, strip its pension funds and move the whole thing to China, and it's considered his right. Not only his he not taxed, our taxes go to help him do it.

Rich people are too irresponsible to be allowed to keep all their money. They just gamble it away on Wall Street. There isn't a cent of tax charged on their gambling. And worse, they want us to cover their debts!!

For their own good, we need to return to the high tax rates of the 50s. There is no reason to tempt them with such ridiculous amounts of money. They've proven that they can't be trusted with it.