I consider myself lucky to have a wonderful assortment of extremely intelligent, educated friends, about half of whom are liberals, the other half of whom are conservatives. I've recently begun to engage many of them, from all across the political spectrum, in unity, as fellow Americans, in a discussion of every issue you can imagine, via email. It's been at times enlightening and frequently frustrating, but I've managed to find at least occasional solidarity with the folks from the "other side," more often than most people would imagine, and I frequently mention Barack Obama's stance that liberals and conservatives have more in common than we realize.
Tonight I was inspired by the following comment to write up a synopsis of my liberal manifesto, and to challenge my conservative friends to find fault with my ideology.
My conservative friend said, in response to my casual mention of a 'rich liberal' friend (and probably mainly to bait me): "...I can compete with liberals but rich is much tougher, BTW i thought that if you were rich you automatically became a right winger, yes?? What is wrong with this guy?"
After the jump, you'll find my initial, off the cuff, from the heart response to the bizarre question of whether or not a rich person is automatically a right winger.
My dear, I've been waiting for you to respond to that little tidbit I threw in about the "rich liberal", so that I can open a dialogue that I'd sort of like to avoid, but is rather tempting. Taste a slice of my world view:
I make about 50k/yr. It's more than I need. Things get tight here and there depending on how disciplined I am, whether or not I need new tires for my car, or splurge too much at the local nursery. Sometimes I have to carry a few hundred dollars on my credit card instead of paying it off in full every month, but that said, I donate plenty to the causes I endorse, help out my friends when they're hurting more than I am, and still am very, very satisfied with my life. 50k/yr is enough to fully finance my American dream. Now, I wouldn't necessarily have been able to purchase the house I have now without the modest inheritance I got from my dead parents, but still, had I been married for the past few years to someone who also makes 50k/yr, I'd be in roughly the same situation. I love my life, and I have everything I could possibly want: A roof over my head, food on my table, a secure job with excellent benefits and retirement, and enough left over to have a good time and help my brethren when they need a hand.
I am constantly reminded of how extremely lucky I am to make the money I make, especially without a bachelor's degree. I am absolutely, positively RICH compared to a majority of Americans. I make more than the national family median in 2005 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States). I, as a single woman, am better off than more than half the families in this country. I am also, unlike a majority of Americans, 100% debt free, excepting my mortgage. Why? Because I make enough money to pay my bills. This puts me in a unique position to give more to my community, to my family and friends, toward infrastructure, roads, social programs, scientific development, political causes, whatever floats my liberal boat, than most of the people I know, or meet on a daily basis, people who can barely make ends meet because they're supporting themselves and their children on less – often MUCH less – than I make. Here's the kicker, and I hope this makes you conservatives groan: I am absolutely willing to pay more taxes. As far as I know, I am rich. TAX ME. I will adjust. I am more than willing to get by on less for the cause of providing basic services, education, health care, etc., to every American. I get pissed when my tax dollars are wasted by either party, and that's an overwhelmingly multifaceted can of worms we can explore until doomsday, but the bottom line is, I believe my tax dollars should provide a basic groundwork for every American that will (if we hold our legislators accountable) allow all of us the opportunity to prosper.
Now, if I were to suddenly find myself making double what I make currently, and I get taxed at a higher rate, and end up taking home only a couple more thousand dollars a year, can you imagine me complaining? No, I'm not going to complain, because I already have more than I need. A couple thousand dollars more net per year means I can buy some more plants for my garden, and maybe take a slightly more extravagant vacation, probably donate more to charitable causes, and in the meantime be happy that I have more to contribute to society via my taxes (while holding my legislators accountable for what they do with my taxes).
But Barack Obama doesn't even want to raise my taxes. He doesn't think I'm rich. He wants to give me a tax cut. What the hell?
If I were to find myself making quadruple what I make currently, and found that I only netted 10k more than I do now...no complaints here. I have more money to play with, and I'm contributing more to society.
And Barack Obama STILL doesn't want to raise my taxes. Quoi?!
I mean, holy crap, I can nearly quintuple my income, and Barack Obama still doesn't want to raise my taxes! Even though I'm perfectly willing to pay more. I start to wonder...does this mean I'm not really rich? And if I'm not rich, then what does rich even mean?
According to McCain's gaffe-mouth, once I make 5 million dollars a year I'll be rich, heh. If I made 5 million dollars a year, I'd be so, SO very thrilled to take home 1 million. Then I could REALLY donate a BIG chunk of my net earnings to charity.
So when conservatives who make over 250k per year complain about Barack Obama's tax plan, I wonder, "What the hell are they talking about? They earned the ability to make the whole world a better place, and markedly improve their own standard of living, and they're complaining?" I know there's the question of what the government should and shouldn't be responsible for providing, and whether or not it executes its responsibilities effectively, and whether or not it represents its constituents, and those issues comprise the great, ongoing debates that make being an American a dynamic, diverse, and invigorating experience. But if a majority of us can agree that good quality health care, education, and infrastructure should be provided to every American (which I think we can agree upon, even if we haggle over the details), then the tax issue seems moot to me. Call me idealistic, please. Why shouldn't I be? I'm rich!
So what's the difference between a rich liberal and a rich conservative? On my more generous days, I can call it "complacency" – i.e., people making more and more money gradually grow accustomed to having a bigger house than they need, more cars than they need, more vacations and fancy clothing and all manner of possessions than they need. In that case, I can simply say that they've either forgotten or never understood that it doesn't require 5 million dollars a year, or 1 million, or 250k to live comfortably in this world, in this country, even in Orange County. Ask yourself which is more important – that you have a boat or that a veteran coming home from a war gets the medical and mental health care he needs? (McCain doesn't think we should help that veteran too much, even though he was that veteran.) If you're willing to say that you'd rather keep more of your earnings, while more than half of Americans suffer a tax burden that would be easy for you to bear, and deny the entire population programs that could potentially (if we hold our legislators responsible) provide all of our fellow countrymen the opportunity to live at least somewhat as well as I do, with my measly 50k/year, then I can only call it greed.
That's my liberal manifesto. That is how you can make over 250k or 5mil and not become, by default, a conservative. I am a rich liberal. I will often agree with conservatives about the failures of government to perform as it should, but I challenge each of you to argue against my ideology in a way that doesn't make you out to be a greedy bastard. Or you can just turn on the capslock and call me a socialist, but that wouldn't be very respectable, would it?
Have at.
This is my first diary. I'll be thrilled if anyone reads it.