A recent Letter to the Editor in the St. Pete Times, along with a recent diary here has finally allowed me to understand some of the Tea Party member's wrath, the REAL class warfare going on in society and how unbelievably ignorant of reality many in the American middle class are today. As Warren Buffet pointed out in 2006:
“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
We're all being pitted against others who either have less and want ours or who have more and are trying to keep theirs. At some point we need to decide how much is really enough for any one human being to actually need for a year's income ($5M $10M? $100M?) and tax the hell out of the amount they bring in above that. Perhaps those in this hypothetical 80+% bracket should be recognized as "heroes of the oppressed" or something like that, for the great contribution they'll be making to society. Those whose talents run to "creating wealth" in our culture, can be harnessed for society at large this way, just as a doctor's brains and hand's are or akin to the way in which a scientist's discoveries further our lives.
I mean really, the reason the marginal tax rate was so damn high a few generations back was that our grandparent's elders remembered the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age. We, sadly, have forgotten that excess materialism can be BAD, as it screws the rest of us, that concentrating financial & societal power like that is even WORSE and allowing the instantaneous PR & mass communication of today spread their class war seed is downright FRIGHTENING.
Back to that letter.
We went to school, we studied hard and learned our lessons. We went to college to secure a better life for ourselves and our families. We worked, we paid our taxes and Social Security and Medicare. What the government did not take, we lived on, within our means, without running up unnecessary debt. We knew the difference between needs and wants. We saved for our retirement, knowing that we would not have a pension, figuring on living off our savings and interest in safe investments and Social Security. We paid off our house; we paid off our debt including credit cards. Our financial house was in order. We did what our parents did but it is not working out well for baby boomers. We only thought we were ready for retirement.
Its the demographic I am fast approaching. Perhaps many of us here are. You've got between 5 and 15 years left before you want to hang it up. There are a lot of people who have done as the author above has done. There was a time that if you followed that path, that meant you would have been safe and secure throughout retirement. Now, such people's households are fertile ground to grow Tree Party ideas. That is, assuming they stay ignorant of other factors around them.
We are told that Social Security may be reduced, delayed or in some cases not available, that it is an entitlement. Our safe investments in certificates of deposit return almost nothing due to the government-influenced low-interest rates. We spread our saving into some stocks that have not returned a profit and have, in many cases, decreased in value. Our home equity has been cut in half. Our private health insurance rates go up every year. Even if we could afford the insurance premiums, the health insurance companies refuse to insure us due to having survived cancer or some other disease.
Here is the first glimmer that the author sits glued to Fox when not working. Part of the Health Care Act will be taking care of that last complaint. The next clue, to me, is when it is said of Social Security, "that it is an entitlement". Where could one have heard this, in such a pejorative sense, recently? Since when is describing something one is "entitled" to a bad word? Since when does entitlement in our language equate with welfare? I think it is when Fox starts their daily "Reasons Why You Should Diminish Your Future Hopes So the Rich Can Save Our Country" segment.
Like the horse with the carrot suspended in front of it, our dream retirement remains just out of reach.
I see the government bailing out financial institutions and huge corporations because they are too big to fail.
I do not see them subsidizing CD rates for seniors so that we don't have to go into risky investment schemes. Retirement, like everything else, has and is changing from what we envisioned, what we prepared for and what the government promised to us.
"What the Government promised us". It may be an "entitlement", but he STILL KNOWS, deep down, that he contributed, was told he'd get "X" and by GOD he wants "X". This is where the Democratic Party can become a lifesaver for this class of people. Despite all the talk, all the constant haranguing from the anchors and commentators, Fox just can't seem to get these people to forget one thing: They got a promise and someone ain't helping keep it.
The Democrats obviously aren't; they've offered cuts to those promises also. Heck, they might as well cast lots over there with the guys who are at least trying to level the playing field a bit. Fox News and their beloved Tea Party promises that they will help get their money back, just believe in them.
Then the heart of the matter. This is where Class War comes into play. And, on first blush its easy to see why:
I see the people who did not complete school, the people who did not work hard their entire life, getting government handouts. Free health care, free housing, free food, free cash.
They are living my retirement without having done the work. They are enjoying the sweat of my labors while I worry about daily needs.
I can actually SEE this guys point. I know some, its mostly those who DID NOT go to school and who now aren't working, who do get by for "free". Its not extravagant living, despite the computer, TV OR microwave they might have, but in one way, it sure is nicer and a whole lot better than this Tea Partier has it. "They" don't have to spend down their savings (not that they have any!) for food, health care and heavily subsidized housing. Nice to be in their shoes, since they didn't have to work for their living. (I am sure the author would insist on keeping the retirement assets, eh?)
In fact, I read somewhere that something like one out of three non-college educated people aged 21-30 are NOT working in this area. That's easy to believe, as "in this area", 1 out of 8 are looking for ANY work and can't find it. The rest of us are NOT giving up our jobs for that 1 out of 3, believe me.
But the best part of this is the free health care rant. He obviously has never BEEN on Medicare & experienced its limits or he wouldn't complain so loudly about all the free "availability of services". And, just who shot down the President's single-payer idea anyway? Who killed Medicare buy-in at 55? The Democrats? Or could it have been some OTHER group?
Finally, his demands:
The government is giving my money to the slackers. I won't even get into the foreign giveaways and wars. What's wrong with this picture?
It is time for the government to stop giving away our money. It's time for fiscal responsibility. I see and have read many stories about how modern families today do not live within their means. I see the government not living within its means. I see that my living within my means has let others have what I no longer can afford. I see this needs to change.
If he only realized how small the foreign giveaways were in proportion to the money spent on the wars part, eh? Big question: Why DOESN'T he get into the foreign giveaways and wars? Why? The damned government "gave it away" and "others have what I no longer can afford". Who are "they", anyway?
What "others" is the author referring to? The U.S. Army? The Banks? Wall Street? The Koch brothers? Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex? I know in MY state a lot of the stimulus, (you know the money Obama "gave away"?), went to keep police and teachers working another year. I bet those damn slackers in the PD have the money! Do they all have subsidized CDs dividend checks due to our author? Where does this Tea'er think the money has been going? Just who has received the lion's share of propping up here? I bet if we had all the money spent since 2008 trying to FIX the mess we're in, all the bank handouts and military support to the Middle East, none of it paying much in dividends, Mr./Ms. Everyone here wouldn't think things were so bad.
As for the "slackers", young and old, out there with no job, who get up at 9:30 or 10:00 because they have nothing to do and have just plain given up, you complainers can just turn OFF Fox News and get your butt on the Progressive Bus and make sure the government supplies Mr. Slacker or Ms. Slacker a fair and decent job, paying decent money, fixing the infrastructure of this country. If they have no skills, they can get them at night while working in the day. If they have kids, well then, there is a place for OTHER "slackers" to work. Pay them enough so that they can afford the same level of housing and food they had while doing nothing AND A LITTLE MORE. Make it worthwhile to them to work. Your taxes are paying them now FOR DOING NOTHING! Don't you get it? Meanwhile, cut 50% in subsidies from the 10% of adults who actually could function....but won't.
Or, the author could trade places with a slacker. After all, I bet they'd like that nice paycheck and it would feel nice for once bringing home decent money. Probably could get up for that everyday, because they'd have something to look forward to. I know SEVERAL hard working unemployed men in their mid 20s to mid 30's who can no longer depend on construction and who'd love to go to work every day.
I'm going to tell some of those stories soon. Its amazing what is going on out there.