Our ongoing class warfare...
Lately I keep hearing a steady beat of, "tax the rich" in order to pay for Obamacare. The implicit message seems to be one of class warfare & envy. How the hell did we get here anyway?
In the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness" the character played by Will Smith gets a job as an unpaid intern for an insurance company. It's a good flick and I'll not give anything more away that might spoil it for anybody. But one item sticks in my head, during the entire flick Will Smith is shown interacting with wealthy folk. ALL of them are shown to be decent human beings, when was the last time you remember seeing that in a film?
I'll never be rich, having three children while in my 50's has guaranteed that. It doesn't bother me either. Really, how much steak can a person eat in a week anyway? In the interests of full disclosure, we last ate steak around Christmas. Which is when we might see it again. Maybe. BFD. Whether you eat steak or hamburger it all comes back out looking the same.
But if someone has a wad of dough I'm happy for 'em. They probably earned it and deserve it, good on them!
So I really don't get the whole class warfare mindset.
To listen to the MSM though, you'd think it was an accepted ideal.
Just don't get it.
8 comments:
Wages are down 30% since 1972. In 1970 most working class wives did not have to work, not they almost all do. Unionization peaked at 35% in the early 1950's, but is now down to about 12%. The gap between owning and working classes is greater than at any time since the 1920's. And you are talking about "class envy?"
Why aren't you talking about the class warfare that the owning classes have been waging unrelentingly against the working class since Roosevelt died in 1945?
Doesn't our Church teach Social Justice? Didn't Pope Pius XI teach that "It is the function of government to adjust ownership to meet the needs of the public good."
To quote Dave Ramsey, "poor people don't give you jobs."
Dutchman - Anyone who wants to earn a living can do so. All I have witnessed for the past 63 years is more and more people with their hands out.
I started our churches charity outreach and when I made calls without fail the person asking for help with their utility bill or whatnot, had the finest TV's, stereo's, cars, large dogs they couldn't afford, smoked or had a drinking or drug problem. This on top of receiving rent assistance and food stamps.
Most women do not have to work now. Again, considering the cost of day care, work clothes, transportation, et al, these women would be better served by staying home and raising their children.
Oh yeah - they might have to give up the second SUV or live in a smaller home.
People are just plain lazy. Up until I was in my thirties working three jobs was routine. I was ok with that. It's the way I was raised.
Adrienne — Nothing you say addresses the consistent beating the WORKING CLASSES (not the poor who will not work, the WORKERS) have taken in the last thirty years.
The shift of income from the workers to the owners since 1980 has been drastic. Our manufacturing capacity is down 35% since 1978 and most of those jobs have gone overseas, driving down wages among those still employed in industry. The tax burden too, has shifted to the working classes, with taxes on capital gains, marginal income, and corporations down, payroll taxes up, and real estate values wildly inflated causing property taxes to sky-rocket.
Interestingly, even the WaPo has admitted in two recent editorials that expecting the rest of the country to ride on the backs of the rich will not work on a practical level.
My guess is that the editors of the WaPo feel BHO's noose tightening around THEIR necks as the editors are paid quite well.
right on Rev!!
Dutch...who the heck is "owning class" anyway?? I own a house, a car...two cats..a husband (oops..don't tell him that)....a computer...and quite a few other objects...does that make ME "owning class"???
oh, and you're flat wrong about "wives have to work". That's hogwash. Wives (speaking as one) do not HAVE to work now any more than they ever have (except for during WWII, then they did actually HAVE to work!)...Wives of today choose to work because they have been brainwashed into thinking (thanks to Ms Friedan and her ilk) that they are somehow missing out or lacking if they DON'T work. And our "ownership is important" society has enticed the majority of folk into believing that they must, just must, own more STUFF than they can afford....and therefore can't make it on one salary.
By "owning class" we mean those people who own the means of production and live off of dividends, rents,profits, as opposed to those who earn the bulk of their income from selling their labor in the market.
Why will none of you address the fundamental truth that the position of the working classes in this country has eroded tremendously since the early 1970's? Every measurable statistic (wage income, hours worked, productivity, etc.) verifies this trend. Working class income, both absolutely and relative to owning class income, has been steadily pushed DOWN since the Nixon era.
"Free trade," libertarian monetary policy, financial de-regulation, and tax give-aways to the rich have proven disastrous to the working classes.
Or do you think that it's a good thing that everything we buy is made in China, real estate prices are wildly inflated, and the owning classes enjoy a larger proportion of the national income than at any time since 1929?
Dutch, I've answered your latest comments in a recent post. Scroll to the top of the page and you should find it easily enough.
Normally I touch base with someone before putting their comments into a post, I think of it as basic courtesy. The email link at your profile doesn't allow me to contact you that way for some reason.
Hey, Vet?
Did you DELETE the thread where you answered me?
Wow — are you a coward!
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