I am part of the 2% and I am not the enemy. Further, for those on the left that want to use stereotypes that the 2% are not job creators or do not pay their fair share I suggest you pay attention. Not all of us inherited wealth. Our wealth comes from hard work. We are fortunate, but not lucky per se. And yes many of us understand the need to raise taxes. Some of us even voted for President Obama.
I was fortunate to have parents that understood the importance of education, even though I may have not at times. They were proponents of education and hard work, and made sure college education was paid for. Me and my siblings all had jobs when we were young and we understood the value of money, the need to save, and the concept of staying within one’s means.
I parlayed that stable loving upbringing with an engineering degree to get my first professional job as an engineer at Eastman Kodak. In the 27 years hence I have worked my ass off, studied, learned on the job, took risks, received an advanced degree, generated results, worked even harder, took more risks, and placed myself in the right position to capitalize at the right time. I don’t consider that luck. It is the American Dream in my eyes:
a great upbringing + education + hard work + risk taking = success
I am a job creator. I purchase goods and services, invest in businesses, and make sure the company I work for succeeds and in the process hires more workers here in the U.S. I do not hide money offshore, I pay my taxes, and have said that the tax rates on the upper brackets need to return to the Clinton era.
What I don’t need are those on the left telling me to pay my fair share. I am not threatening to move my money offshore or create some other tax evading scheme. I want a simpler tax code; a code that limits deductions, lowers rates, eradicates loopholes, and instead of insane tax credits, simply gives lower income citizens a check. And as far as the estate tax goes, it is double taxation and those on the left love to use it as a tool to punish the wealthy.
But the wealthy also need to get an understanding that those that earn their income from dividends and capital gains need to realize the tax holiday is over. Further, progressive taxation and progressive principles are not un-American. The unemployed are not lazy, the 47% are not looking for handouts, and the American Dream is based on social safety nets. We the People support one another; and those that talk of fair share are spewing garbage. What is the fair share?
So here I am, a 2%’er in the middle arguing for progressive ideals and telling progressives to back off. Avoid labels, they’re often misleading and too general. I pay what I owe, I may bitch about it, but I pay my fair share.
I owe my mother and my late father for my start and my wife for being there since . Everything else I earned the old fashioned way: hard bloody work.
