I am 23, I work full time at a job that keeps me away from home for months at a time. It has destroyed relationships, friendships, and really my personal life. I pay my taxes, and unlike the others on the 53% movement, I actually make enough (Which is a good thing in my mind) to be taxed and not receive it all back at the end of the year. I have worked since I was 15, which means during my time in high school of playing football, getting a top of the class GPA, and taking college level classes, I was also pulling in 20-30 hours a week, at minimum wage (I used to be a 47%-er).
But I don't blame liberals for my problems, and don't complain about the "lazy" "hippie" "fulling like they are entitled to anything" 99%-er. No, instead I am one of them.
I have been lucky, very lucky, in this economy. After I graduated college with a Electrical Technology degree, I was only in paralyzing debt from student loans, and not in much worst shape. I walked into a great job, with benefits, good pay, and haven't been laid off more than a couple weeks at a time. I generally work my tail off, 70-100 hours a week, every week, away from home. I think it's worth it, you work hard, you get paid for that work, fair is fair. But unlike most of the conservative 53%, I actually pay taxes. I know that they are hard working people, and work probably just as hard, if not harder than me, but their pay doesn't show that. The stories on the tumbler page is often about people working 2-3 jobs, and barely putting food on the table. Now I am not a mathematician, but I would imagine that they probably aren't making over the taxable income limit, even with all 3 jobs combined. And even if they are, they aren't really loosing much in taxes, because their write offs every year will give most, if not all, of their income back.
So why would people who bust their ass for a dollar, and never have nothing to show for it, cry over the super rich, who are becoming less and less built wealth but rather inherited wealth, being taxed a little more? It doesn't make any sense. As a hard working, tax paying American, who has lost his job before, who was poor growing up, and who isn't that "well off", it pisses me off to see that the rich are getting vastly richer, and the us in the middle class, the true 53%, are getting poorer, and bringing the rest down with us. It pisses me off to see those who don't actually work, who don't know what it's like to come home completely exhausted, covered in sweat, bruises, cuts, welps, pains and aches all over you, somehow pay LESS taxes than me. It pisses me off when the conservative media portrays some poor guy, living off his small government check every month, which is enough to barely keep the lights on, is the problem. It pisses me off to no end to hear the word "job creators" and not hear the words "supply and demand" in the same sentence. It pisses me off to see other blinded, hard working, tax paying, Americans, get caught in the conservative media trap and push for less taxes on the rich, less regulation, and less hostility to those poor, misunderstood, bankers and their ilk.
Now I am not saying all rich people are that way. For every Steve Forbes out there, becoming rich off their father's wealth, and then producing more wealth by stabbing the average person in the back, there is a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates. Someone who worked their way up, through innovation. Yes they didn't help the jobs market, by producing chips off seas, but they could do a lot worst, and at the very basic point, they at least worked and starved to make to that point. But the problem is, the Steve Jobs and the Bill Gates of the world are becoming fewer and fewer. The people in power never had to work to make it there. They never had to decide whether they ate or they got their medicine today. They never had to hear the news that their job is no longer "necessary". These experiences are what make the best leaders.
And to the finally point that the 53% always likes to throw up, they made here on their own, they got no assistance, and if you ever got assistance than you're the problem. There is so much wrong with this, it's amazing they can believe this. The rich in this country made there, in some part, because of someone else. Most people in this country would not be where they are had the government not been so worried about the USSR that they wanted a perfectly secure means of communication between two points. That fear is what made the computer, the silicon chip, the internet, and the underlying system that helped build what we see today.
This goes true for even us in the middle. I work in Telecommunications. I work as an installer for an unnamed company, let's just call her Ma. My job 40 years ago, wouldn't exist. There was bell hops, mainframe hops, and the CO Tech, there was no installers. The CO techs installed the blocks, the mainframe hops cross connected it, and the bell hops connected the two lines together. This all changed with the invention of the router. Now data (in this case voice) can be routed to different parts, without the need for a patch cord. Revolutionary invention, and with it came the "Switch". It eliminated the need for bell hops. It mostly eliminated the need for mainframe hops. But it created the job of an installer, someone who did nothing but install these switches, add lines as needed, and could turn up the machine. It also eliminated the need for Western Electric and that created the Bell System, which broke WE into several companies, this lead to the need of competition, which lead to the need to improve the product, reduce the price, and more importantly, innovate. That push for innovation created the cell phone networks, which created a huge market, with a ton of jobs.
We all benefited from someone else, we did not make it here on our own. And if the rich aren't paying their fair share, and are instead destroying our economy in hopes of making a little bit extra profit so they can win some kind of pissing contest on who has the most, then they should be forced to do so. I am happy to pay my taxes, knowing that it made lead to the next technically revolution, that will help move this country forward. I am happy to pay my taxes knowing that helps the greater good. I am happy to pay my taxes knowing that I am helping someone get back on their feet, or keep their home, or feed their kids. I just have to wonder why the rich, who have more than one possible would ever need, feel the need to have more, feel like they are over taxed (even though they are taxed less than me), don't feel they should pull their weight. And have to wonder even more, why the "53%" movement thinks that's ok?
I am not against capitalism
I am against corporate greed
There is a difference