I Wear Pants;991129 wrote:"Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue...Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times.
Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves."
I'm trying to wrap my brain around that phrase about the rich, "who have had to do less for their poor" etc etc. How do we get them to "have to do more" beyond footing the large portion of the federal tax liability for the 47% who pay no federal income taxes?
The poor in this country have access to many multitudes of modern-day conveniences in this country, not to mention the basic necessities of life (wish I had time to link the chart from Heritage that majorspark posted a few weeks ago). I'm trying to figure out how jamming the rich more will translate into a better quality of life for our nation's poor.
Unless you're advocating broadening the tax base (i.e., taxing the poor), to motivate and stir up people's inner drive to make it, as a means of reducing income inequality, then I don't see any solutions in a rich vs. poor argument.