To those in the 1% who might read this:
Why is it considered unfair and immoral to tax those who can afford it, but OK to deny people medical care because they can't afford it? Why is it that somehow someone who makes millions off trading stocks is more entitled to keep their money than someone who works 60 or 70 hours a week doing actual physical labor? How is it greedy that someone who makes 1% of what you do annually demands the right to unionize and earn a living wage?
Listen...I will never begrudge someone who has earned their money honestly but this worship of the wealthy has got to stop. I'm happy for those who saw a demand, created a product to meet that demand, and subsequently made a bunch of money off it. In real capitalism, one takes their money and risks it to make more. Some succeed and some fail, that is the nature of the beast.
What is intolerable is that those who got bailed out when their business fell through, they want to cut the same safety net when it comes to the public. Even worse, there's members of the voting bloc who support that even while they use the very "entitlement" systems that they demonize. In both cases, they believe that they somehow earned a right to these safety net and entitlement funds but other people don't deserve it. This isn't some sort of great concern for fiscal responsibility, it's selfishness, plain and simple.
How else can you justify the waste of trillions of dollars on wars, tax breaks and subsidies for multi-billion dollar companies or massive pork barrel spending? Yet somehow when it comes to money for anti-poverty programs and education, you're suddenly a fiscal hawk? Give me a fucking break. The whole bit about how only 53% of Americans pay taxes? That's not because the tax code unfairly targets the rich, it's because 47% of Americans make so little money, they don't qualify to pay federal taxes, and they shouldn't. However, they still pay state sales tax, vehicle taxes, property taxes, etc.
Put me in the 1% and I'll gladly pay 50-60% of my annual income in hopes that money can be used to better my community and give others the opportunity to achieve the same success. You can't demand good roads, good schools, skilled workers for your business, low crime and all the other great things a 1st world society has to offer without paying for it. Stop trying to be one of the "takers" you like to rail on about and pay your damn taxes instead of trying to get every loophole possible.
Sincerely annoyed with your kvetching,
Whiskey
It's sad we live in an age of unfettered greed. Free market profits and socialized losses. Then we ask the people who have had stagnant wages for the last three decades to "share' in the sacrifice. I wish more Americans would wake up!
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Having both shuffled paper for money, and actually built something with my hands, it's far, far harder to make money physically. Our entire economy depends on those who do the physical work, yet those shuffling papers end up with all the dough.
ReplyDeleteYes, good management is important, but it's not so hard. How many managers would trade places with a worker, even at the same salary?
Don't fall into the right-wingers' trap. The whole thing about 47% not paying taxes (even if we only restrict it to federal taxes) is not and has never been true.
ReplyDelete