Doc Searls led a political wrap up with this Rush Limbaugh quote- ““Would somebody explain to me how it is that you make poor people rich by making rich people poor?”
While Rush’s statement is a good turn of words, what it states as fact isn’t close to true. How ‘poor’ is a person making over $500,000 when their taxes go up even $10K?.
How ‘poor’ is Cindy McCain going to be when she pays an additional $500K on her $4Million?
The premise that those who are benefiting most from the social contract pay more to maintain stability and order ( and face it most of the programs for the poor are more about feeling like we’re doing something than actually making any of them ‘rich’) makes a world of sense.
At the same time proportional taxation can’t fix bloated ineffective government. There just aren’t enough rich people, or their money, to balance the budget, much less make all the poor even middle class.
Balance is what is required, and Reagonomics has been a generation of socializing risk while privatizing profit, mostly benefiting the rich. The statistics are clear. This has not been a rising tide lifting all boats. Some boats, and many that couldn’t be afforded by their buyers, were floated so that manufacturers, bankers, title agents etc. could get richer. The pendulum has to swing back, and the real question is how can we make sure that the transition is with as little drama as possible.
Tags: Doc Searls, politics, Rush, taxes