First off, let me state for the record that I don't begrudge rich people their wealth. And, there isn't even a "however" point to follow. That's it! Even though, in today's economy, where I'm probably making the least money per annum, that I ever have (and damned happy to be working) and most likely considered Middle to Lower Middle Class, in today's America...If you're rich or super-rich...God bless ya.
And, I've been hearing all the arguments about making the Mega-rich pay their fair share. In "Obama World", the definition of Millionaires and Billionaires, is anyone making over $200 thousand a year. I've heard our President firing the first and continued salvos in his class war. And, at the moment, I'm listening to Jeffrey Sachs, expounding on Morning Joe, about how we're witnessing Government disappear before our eyes. What! I thought we had been witnessing the biggest expansion of government in our time. Like a Red Giant. A dying star in some far off galaxy that is growing larger and larger...first consuming then, obliterating any planetary bodies in its orbit, before it goes super nova and explodes, shooting debris, gas and deadly radiation light-years across the cosmos.
Then, Mr. Sachs says that unless we tax the rich - all our precious Government agencies that we've grown so dependent on, will cease to exist. Well...what if the uber-rich didn't exist? What if there was true economic balance in their perfect world. What if simple wealth distribution wasn't an option? Oh, sure...it can be said that tax rates and tax loop holes that now exist are both lower and plentiful than at any time in our history and the rich can afford the lawyers and tax attorneys it takes, to circumvent paying what they should. But really, what if all the regulations you could ever want were in place and all the mechanisms that would prevent those who were able to become runaway, filthy rich were in place, so that we only had a top tier that was just "a little rich." What if there weren't billionaires in our society who were billionaires many times over? What if all the super rich professional athletes, the soaking rich movie stars, the hedge fund zillionaires, weren't around to potentially 'confiscate' their wealth, as so many on the Left are so keen on doing, (somehow I think the soaking rich movie stars would get a pass) to resolve all are financial woes. But, it's widely purported these days, that if you were to confiscate all the money of the mega-rich, leaving them nothing...it still wouldn't make a dent in our national debt or our staggering deficit.
So, if there weren't all these rich folks around whose money we could reappropriate - then, what are we left with? What we're left with is the reality of what really ails us. Runaway government spending! Because, the rich being rich, isn't the problem. So, surely, taking their money to fund an ever-expanding government base, absolutely isn't the solution. Why then, does our President and those on the Left and the Occupiers weave this tale that somehow, because the rich exist - if we just take their money...all would be right with the World? Talk about your straw-man argument.
The cold, hard facts are - aside from the ideologies on both sides of either not taxing anyone to robbing everyone who makes over $200K per year...our elected representatives spend too much of our money and don't keep track of it at all or any of the money blowing out the windows unseen or accounted for... Or maybe, they're just too busy getting filthy rich themselves, with insider trading, that they just don't notice. In any event...stop gambling with the money you get from us now! Stop putting half a billion on Solyndra to show. Step away from the betting window, with pocketfuls of our money! Stop allowing unions to garner pensions for life, for their own Fat Cats, that dwarf their salaries when they actually had a job! Stop all the unneeded waste of our taxpayer money that occurs, as regular course - from health care and amenities for our elected officials for their entire lives to the fraud and abuse that cost untold billions in all our entitlement programs that are deemed so untouchable, by those on the Left.
Start there! Clean up all those things I just mentioned and the myriad of other spending and waste, running rampant through our current system of government, that will eventually turn us into a bad imitation of Greece...Then and only then, come back to us with your proposals to take more of our money...rich or poor, to assist in funding this fiscal mess that you and those like you, in government, have wreaked lo these many decades. Fix the Ship of State FIRST, to keep it from sinking, before coming to us for financing for a swimming pool on the Lido Deck.
