The Washington Post ran a column a few days ago, in which a Mr. Joel Berg applauds the Obama Administration for reducing the amount of charitable deduction that The Rich are allowed to take when they write a check to charity.
Mr. Berg – who runs a charitable foundation that feeds the poor — explains things for us thusly:
“…It is wrong to give them [the very rich] unilateral power to decide whether their taxpayer-subsidized donations should go to, say, well-heeled operas or lavish care of pets rather than to organizations that meet more pressing communal needs.”
Mr. Berg lists two specific ways in which The Rich have been Letting Down the Team – again.
“First,” he writes, “such tax deductions are a highly inefficient way to fund social programs.” Got that? He continues: “Second, voluntary private charity is a less equitable way to solve community problems.”
See the problem here? “When the wealthiest Americans donate to charities,” writes Berg, “they are most likely to give to universities, hospitals and cultural institutions from which they and their families may benefit.”
The filthy swine!
The answer is simple. Don’t let The Rich have a big deduction on charitable giving, since they will donate to stupid things like the Arts or medical centers, instead of those charities doing important things – like Mr. Berg’s.
No sir! The answer is clear: simply tax them more.
“Combined with other progressive Obama tax proposals, that change would not only start to redress the inequality gap that has engulfed America in recent decades but would also help to pay for many effective domestic programs…”
…Which Mr. Berg then helpfully goes on to list.
Well, I read this article in the Washington Post, and I thought: there you have it. The top ten percent, that pays sixty percent of the total income tax and which allows the bottom half – HALF! – to pay nothing… Those horrible, greedy bastards are not using their free-will generosity as “efficiently” as the government can, so let’s just take more of their money and call it square.
So let me now send a personal message to The Rich in America…
As an American and a patriot, I implore you – I go to my knees and beg you – LEAVE NOW.
Leave. Just go away. Retire to the Cayman Islands or Bermuda or wherever, but do it now, please, while you still have some love for this country. Close your companies, fire your employees, shutter your factories and offices, sell your property, and take all of that somewhere else… better yet: somewhere scenic but poverty-stricken. Somewhere that could use some wealth creation. Somewhere that people simply are grateful to have a job in the first place. Somewhere where you will be appreciated.
You are not welcome in America any more. Take your wealth and prosperity and inventiveness and hard work and vision and insight and bold risk-taking and joy in seeing growth and wealth creation and just go away – right now, before it’s too late. Because if you stay, Joel Berg and Barack Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd will continue to come after you for more and more and more and they will not ever stop – not ever – until you are forced to flee. And when that day comes, you will go with not with fond remembrances and a desire to return home, but rather a black heart and hard and bitter memories.
So on behalf of those few of us who still believe in the Land of Opportunity, I beg you and implore you, in the name of our common patriot ancestors who worked so hard and sacrificed so much so that we could become so spoiled and ungrateful: take your 60% of the total income taxes and just go away.
Because if you do, then there will no longer be an Enemy for the Left to stick it to. Then, perhaps, the half of the country that pays no income tax might have to put some skin in the game. Then, perhaps, with most of the wealth generation gone we will turn to our community organizers to provide the wealth creation, and the tax dollars, and the innovation. When you have gone the President of the United States, supported by an army of little acorns like Joel Berg, will have to start calling for the rest of us to be taxed more to address the inequality gap.
That’s what I want.
You see, I’ve actually been there. I have experienced this pathology from the inside.
There was a time, in my twenties, when I was very poor. I have sat silent in an apartment, shades drawn, silently waiting for the loud knocking of the landlord to go away. I have borrowed enough money to have to decide whether or not to restore the electricity, or the telephone. (And by the way, that decision is a no-brainer.) I have been that broke long enough to realize something about myself.
I was living off of the charity of friends. The charity of friends – do I make myself clear? I never applied for welfare or food stamps because – silly me – I thought that was for people who really needed it.
After a year or two being constantly bailed out by my friends – “Wheel-less Whittle” they called me, far more kindly than I deserved – after several years of their largesse, and because my delicate artistic nature prevented me from getting any number of the actual paying jobs I could have landed in a half-hour – I began to get angry with them, especially my best friend, Fritz. Yes, he bought me lunch and dinner and drove me everywhere. Yes, he helped cover my electric bills and rent. But he was making out like a bandit: he was a successful commercial actor in Miami, making over a hundred grand a year.
And so I stopped looking at what he did for me, and started looking at what he could do, but didn’t. I went to him with a plan for him to pay my entire rent and expenses. He refused, the miserable selfish bastard. Not because he couldn’t afford it, mind you, but because he was getting really worried about me and thought it would – get this, Mr. Berg! – do me harm.
And I was furious. Furious. For two weeks I hated him with a white-hot rage.
That is the pathology – that is the sickness – that dependency breeds: resentment and hostility to those that help you the most.
And I will add one thing to this story, if only to cover the shame of me dredging it up for you to see: I fought this dependency cycle for most of my middle life. I lived in his garage for a while. And then, finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and I went out and found a job. Actually, his wife got it for me. But I took it. By some unknown action of grace or luck my new employer advanced me $300 and I bought a used bike and rented a dirty room in a cheap motel. I rode the bike to work at 5:00 am and put in several hours on a second project, and then would stay late after work and put in three or four more. This actually isn’t too hard, when you have nothing to go home to.
I was six weeks in that motel, paying by the week. I had saved enough for an apartment. The first two places I went to turned me down flat. I do not remember what my credit score was, but So Help Me God I do know it was below 350.
Finally I found a place that accepted me based on my pay stubs and the shame written on my face. When the second project finally paid, a few months later, I was able to buy a used car. A year later I used that car to drive 45 miles a day to get a job that paid almost twice as much. I would be so tired, driving home after 11:00 pm, that I remember praying that the car ahead of me was going to my apartment because I was too tired to do anything other than follow him down the 405.
That job led to a better job. That better job led to a better one, and then a better one, then a great job, and that is where I am now. And all my life, from the time I was five, I had always had a single dream: to own my own airplane. I’d like to be able to say I worked hard to achieve that dream for as long as I held it, but that’s just not true. It was just a dream, not a goal. Then, two and a half years ago, another friend rode to my aid. Dana and I both had a dream of owning a small airplane in which we could give free rides to anyone who wanted one — just to share the experience that has so moved us with those that might not otherwise get the chance. And then — through her hard work and discipline over the many years I had been adrift — we were able to buy one, and I have been paying for my half slowly through the hard work and discipline I have come to acquire.
From this transformational experience I learned something new and re-learned something old: first, a dream becomes a goal once you make a viable plan and stick to it, and second, the single most important thing you do in life is choose your friends.
Needless to say, I’m not one of The Rich that all of this vitriol is aimed at, but the thought occurs to me that if I keep this new attitude up I might become one some day… at which point I can look forward to paying enough to cover the half of the country that pays nothing, and have my charitable efficiency rated by Mr. Berg.
I don’t carry that vitriol myself. I know a few of The Rich. The one I know best I met forty years ago over a breakfast of generic brand breakfast cereal and grey powdered milk. I watched him come up with an idea, shop it around, face failure and go back at it again. I worked for him in the early days. He was there when I arrived and remained after I left, every single day. He owns three houses now, and has made all of his employees rich too. When I visit him in these magnificent places, I think back to the two-bedroom house that housed his family of six, and I am curiously enough not filled with rage that someone lives in such a palace. I am, in fact, uplifted and motivated to live in such a place myself. Perhaps I shall, someday.
Until then, you’ll be happy to know I’m not angry at my friend Fritz any more. I paid back every dime I borrowed, and his money is no good when I am in his company. I am determined that he never pays for another lunch or dinner for the rest of my life or his, whichever comes first.
And I say all of this – all of it – simply because I wake up to discover that in this country today, this better, harder-working, more productive, kinder and happier man I have become is now in thrall to the bitter, angry, ungrateful and despicable adolescent I once was. Well, that bitterness and envy was powered only by the fact that a better man than I was allowed me to become that way through his kindness, and then forced me to break out of that addiction out of real love for me and fear about what I had become.
So to The Vilified Rich, I beg you now: do for the rest of the country what my friend did for me… do for us what we are incapable of doing for ourselves. Break us of this addiction to the generosity of others. Just go away for a while, voluntarily, and leave the rest of us to look around and wonder where all the money and the jobs went. It will be painful, and it will be bitter, and our rage will be a terrible thing to see. But then, either we will get better, or we won’t. All will depend on whether or not we still feel the shame, and find the courage, to recover for ourselves the mastery over our own lives that once existed for all Americans, before you few despicable rich people came and started paying for more than half of everything. Which, as is obvious now, was not nearly enough.
If we can break this fever, then you can come back with your jobs and your capital and your vision and your wealth, which was generated by producing something large numbers of people found worth paying for. But go now, while you still love America enough to want to come back some day. Because if you don’t shut this thing down, and soon, the Bergs and Obamas will take and take and take from you until you never want to see this Godforsaken land again.
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272 Comments
1. Dave V.:Good to have you back Mr. Whittle.
Apr 6, 2009 - 12:59 pm 2. Mrs. du Toit:You hit that one out of the park, Bill.
Apr 6, 2009 - 1:31 pm 3. Tom Humes:Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
Apr 6, 2009 - 1:31 pm 4. Stoutcat:Wow! That, my friend, was a masterpiece. Thank you.
Apr 6, 2009 - 3:38 pm 5. Liz Le Mond:Indeed, it’s great to have you back!
For any Tolkien fans out there, the philosophical/political climate today reminds me of the Dead Marshes that Frodo and Sam have to pass through on their way to Mordor. Mr. Berg, as he spouts his garbage, is like one of the lights that appears “like misty flames flickering slowly above unseen candles,” to lure the wearly travelers into reaching for the “pale faces…all foul, all rotting, all dead,” of bad policies based on rotten philosophy. Or maybe he’s one of the dead faces. Comments, anyone?
I just hope we can get through our own Dead Marshes; but even if we do, things could still get worse…
And yes, ideas DO have consequences!
Apr 6, 2009 - 3:47 pm 6. Jeff:I wouldn’t worry about becoming one of the rich. Since you work in TV, the liberals will cut off your income as soon as they are aware that you are spewing this filth.
Apr 6, 2009 - 3:48 pm 7. Stephen Macklin:Who is Bill Whittle?
And where is Whittle’s Gulch?
Apr 6, 2009 - 4:00 pm 8. Ron Pisaturo:Very heartfelt, very convincing, and absolutely right.
America really does need Atlas Shrugged to come true.
Apr 6, 2009 - 4:07 pm 9. Liz Le Mond:And, BTW, that was a really powerful cry from the heart – and, if you’ll pardon my continued Tolkein jag, you show a worldview as different from Mr. Berg’s sludge as, oh, Farimer is from your average Orc…
Apr 6, 2009 - 4:08 pm 10. Emily Nelson:Wonderful as usual. Where would you recommend the rich go? America is still the best place to live.
Apr 6, 2009 - 5:01 pm 11. patrick garrett:As someone who has been out of work for the last quarter of 2008 and as someone who has completed his tax form last night let me agree with Mr Whittle. My wife and I are far from rich as defined by President Obama, but our taxes went up anyway. I wondered why. Using my tax preparation software I learned that although I did not work for the final three months of 2008, together we made more money in 2008 than we did in 2007, whcih means out taxes went up. Because we were fifty dollars short every year in withholding taxes, for the first time since we have been married, we are paying federal taxes. Hope and Change indeed! I aspire to be more wealthy in the future, but if all that awaits me is the vapid blathering of Frank, Dodds, and Pelosi, anyone wish to tell me why I should bother?
Apr 6, 2009 - 5:15 pm 12. patrick garrett:Sorry its not “year”, we were fifty dollars short every “month”, making our refund the difference of having a refund that would finance a modest dinner for two, rather than paying 485 American dollars to the IRS. Those in power now are treating our money like its monopoly money, our dollars are being devalued by the minute, every minute. Inflation is on the horizon and likely closing fast on us all.
Apr 6, 2009 - 5:23 pm 13. pdwalker:I hope the “rich” take your advice Mr Whittle. I would hope to join them, but that may be unrealistic for me, but the look on the faces of the collectivist nincompoops when they realize the money really is all gone would be worth the price we all would pay.
I went through something similar. I remember the bitterness I felt over a close friend who, through their own hard effort, became very successful at what they had done.
One day I finally realized how ugly that bit of me was, and then I grew up. Then it was gone.
Perhaps some people just need to do some growing up.
Apr 6, 2009 - 5:38 pm 14. Instapundit » Blog Archive » FROM BILL WHITTLE, a message to The Rich….:[...] FROM BILL WHITTLE, a message to The Rich. [...]
Apr 6, 2009 - 5:58 pm 15. JAY:Obama got 53% of the vote. Those voters represent 30% of the money in the US. The anti-Obama 70% has to vote with its dollars. Make sure Obama doesn’t get them.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:04 pm 16. Rox:Maybe, instead of taxing those who pay for everything more, we should incentivize those who take the most to work a little harder? No reason why someone on the public dole shouldn’t spend their weekends picking up litter or something
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:13 pm 17. JP:Very well said. I didn’t come from the depths of despair like Bill. But I recently bought a small business and am doing extremely well working at home. I got here from working hard, finishing college, and basically making career mistakes. After 5-6 office jobs, I discovered I really hated office life and working for others. Now I am on my own, making excellent money and loving life. But some presidents seem to think I’m an ATM and should be drained dry. I’m ‘rich’ according to him. Now of course I want to keep my money, but that’s not why I so oppose Obama and people like him. They are wrecking the American spirit and it both infuriates and saddens me.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:16 pm 18. MarkJ:“Because if [The Rich] leave, then there will no longer be an Enemy for the Left to stick it to.”
Wrong. The Left will never run out of enemies. It never does. The Left, like Stalin, will simply change the definition of “enemy” to “anyone whom we believe remotely opposes us, is better off than us, and is happier than us.” And the Left will not rest even if The Rich leave. On the contrary, it will continue to pursue and hound its perceived enemies even if they take refuge somewhere else.
Indeed, this is why the Left can and must only be defeated and crushed…politically or otherwise.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:20 pm 19. Bob Skinner:Good article, but the top 10 percent actually pay 71 percent of income taxes (http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html).
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:24 pm 20. betsybounds:I fear that the problem with Mr. Whittle’s solution (the rich should leave) is that, in Obama’s world (which is closer to becoming coincident with the real world in which we must all live), the World is on the verge of becoming unitary. Where will there be to go? One world, one government, one authority. Very unsettling–to say no more. Those who thought to leave the U.S. for friendlier climes will find themselves without an option. I don’t know what we are to do about this. I hope there is something.
Suggestions, anyone?
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:24 pm 21. Dr. Fred:Well done!
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:25 pm 22. kentuckyliz:I would not be surprised if a bunch of Galting started up.
I have a cousin in HK….
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:26 pm 23. SDN:Connie, tell Kim that I never thought I’d see the day when “Let Africa Sink” would apply to this country. I’m seeing it now.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:30 pm 24. John:Great story. As people of principle, I’m convinced that we need to work harder to organize these sorts of protests and do a little “community organizing” of our own to fight this largesse.
I don’t think it’s time to leave yet. I think it’s time to fight.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:30 pm 25. flicka47:Well,I guess we have all been there a little. We look at a friend or relative and think how much easier it seems they’ve had it than we have. Then if we are honest we will see how much work it took for them to make it look “easy”.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:31 pm 26. Tyger:Then we get over our self pity party,and try to do it for ourselves!
I recently bought Atlas Shrugged and am reading it. My favorite part so far is on page 358, where Dr. Stadler tells Dagny, “You know the hallmark of a second-rater? It’s resentment of another man’s achievement.”
I just got an email from a friend of mine in New Orleans describing how Obama has handed over US soveriegnty to the rest of the world, gutting the US giving away the body parts.
I’m just a cat with two kittens, and I’m scared.
Tyger
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:35 pm 27. Scott P:Well Said bill – two words Atlas Shrugged (Sombody already beat me to this particular punchline with the Wittle’s Gulch comment above, but I still couldn’t resist.)
Full Disclosure: Ayn Rand is a tiresome bore, but the philosophy in that book is first rate.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:39 pm 28. Daniel:I have been a member of a fraternal organization since 1988.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
And have been a Treasurer for a good many years.
I have written an average of over $20K per year to various charitable organizations for feeding the poor, helping orphans, funding medical research.
This twit, Joel Berg, doesn’t know his foot from a yardstick.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:44 pm 29. David H Dennis:I’m glad to see you back and writing! Great stuff. I do wish you’d finish that essay on global warming someday. I was really looking forward to reading it. My views on global warming, of course, are that I wish it would happen. The average temperature in the USA is way too cold. Most people would much rather vacation in Florida than Alaska. Surely higher average temperatures could only help!
Anyway, back to your essay. This really is a pretty little problem, where to go if you’re rich and want your money to go to those hardworking enough to deserve it.
For example, the Philippines has an oddly libertarian/anarchist feel to it, but once you get big enough for the government to notice you, you’re toast – and worse off than in America thanks to all the bribery and corruption.
Many Americans are at least moving from expensive states like California to cheaper states like Florida and Texas.
The case of Rush Limbaugh is a nice example. He doesn’t have a choice but to stay in the US, because his legions of fans would probably die of shock if he didn’t. But he did quite wisely flee from high-tax New York to Florida, a state with no income tax.
I’m in the middle of a move myself from Pennsylvania to Florida, and I’m noticing Florida services are actually of higher overall quality than Pennsylvania, even though Pennsylvania’s taxes are double or more Florida’s. (It’s hard to compare a 3% income tax with an 0% income tax, of course). I remember thinking of Texas services in the same way – superior to California or Pennsylvania despite Texas being a cheaper state.
I can only say that it looks like a spirit of thrift is very important in running state services, and it seems to be far more common in Republican states. Also, it’s the non-thrifty states that are losing population. You could say this is people in miserable cold states like Michigan and Pennsylvania moving to warm states like Florida, but corrupt but warm Louisiana is losing population (even pre-Katrina) and of course California is too despite its enormous weather advantage.
Unfortunately, you make real sacrifices by leaving California. The best restaurants are all in these ill-governed states. The nicest bookstores are all there. (This is one thing I really miss in Florida). It’s tough to find a really great place to live that has the great things you want and low taxes. A lot of me still misses the Los Angeles area, where I lived happily for almost two decades. But if you need to be rich to live there, and are not, it’s time to leave
.
One final note – it appears that the government is seeing what you’re seeing and declaring it a danger. They are trying to ban offshore tax havens. I have often wondered why the government has leverage over, say, Switzerland. They aren’t going to invade, after all, so why do they have any ability to override Swiss laws? If I were the Swiss, I would say “forget it, I’m not going to betray my long-time customers and associates, period.” Why didn’t they do that and preserve a valued industry and tradition of integrity?
D
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:44 pm 30. Katherine:My husband and I came to this country in our very early twenties with a couple of backpacks and box full of books (legally, mind you). We worked and worked, and took classes at night, learned the language. Now I am I am a PhD scientist. My husband is an entrepreneur in software tech. After years and years of hard work we managed to get to become the Rich (as currently defined).
And I have a question: why have we suddenly become Enemies of the People? We did not steal, we payed out taxes like good’ uns, we gave to charities. All our lives we were working our butts off to get where we are. But take heart: we are not likely to stay Rich due to current administration’s attitude about small business and their mission to “return the wealth to its rightful owners” – whoever that may be.
Mr. Whittle’s advice is a very good one, but I would have to ask one specific question: where are we supposed to go? Former Communist countries? we came from there and believe me, these places are not quite as great for free market enterprise as you would imagine from Vaclav Klaus speeches. Caribbean? – these guys are being squeezed by big and mighty EU and USA, no havens there anymore. China? India? When they abide by the rule of law, we may consider of it. Western Europe? Australia? Don’t make me laugh. Who else is left?
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:46 pm 31. Render:There is no Galt’s Gulch anywhere on this entire planet. USA was and still is the best and last hope of the free men. We MUST stand up and fight.
Unfortunately, getting out doesn’t help matters much. The punitive Expatriation Tax applies to those who “terminated their long-term resident status” as well as those explicitly expatriating, is sufficiently vague, and drops the qualification of “for tax purposes” in the supporting literature enough that those evil rich will get their comeuppance one way or another.
But it’s a nice thought, and well said.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:47 pm 32. Agoraphobic Plumber:“Where would you recommend the rich go? America is still the best place to live.”
It wouldn’t be if the people Bill is talking about left. Then the best place to live would be wherever they went. Don’t think it couldn’t happen, either. I haven’t seen signs of it yet, but hard-working people are starting to grumble about how their role models are being treated.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:53 pm 33. dicentra:“follow him down the 405″
You are SO from California!
I was on private disability for two years, and when the disability company discontinued my payments, the emotional inertia made it extremely difficult to get back to work.
In fact, it was only the imminent threat of losing my house that prodded me back into the workforce.
If I, who had a good decade or more of work experience under my belt had a tough time going back to work, I can only imagine how it is for those who were born and raised in a welfare home.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:56 pm 34. bb:Excellent paper. BTW, I’m a long time reader, first time commenter. I’m currently in that position of having to rely on the charity of friends/family. Although I don’t think about what they COULD do, I think of what they DO do, and I let them know I appreciate it as often as possible. And that helps me stay focused on the mission.
Apr 6, 2009 - 6:56 pm 35. I think that Bill Whittle is being a little apocalyptic, here. - Redhot - RedState:[...] don’t debate the sentiment: dependency on others is a strongly addictive mental and moral habit, and one that isn’t all that easy to shake. [...]
Apr 6, 2009 - 7:03 pm 36. Moe Lane » I think that Bill Whittle is being a little apocalyptic, here.:[...] don’t debate the sentiment: dependency on others is a strongly addictive mental and moral habit, and one that isn’t all that easy to shake. [...]
Apr 6, 2009 - 7:03 pm 37. bour3:Great post. Thank you for your honesty and openness.
Apr 6, 2009 - 7:06 pm 38. Dr. Dave:Why don’t the Swiss companies tell the U.S. government to pound sand? Because Swiss companies, particularly Swiss banks, want to profit from branches in the U.S. They think that there is more to be made from keeping their U.S. operations than from keeping the few customers who are tax cheats. They are probably right overall.
Apr 6, 2009 - 7:07 pm 39. Anontrepreneur:The commenters discussing moving south are on to something. I’m founder of a gaming startup, and once we get funding I and three other founders and our families are planning to move from the northeast to Georgia and establish the company there. Nicer climate, cheaper everything, and the state is providing incentives for our industry.
BTW would it be hard to get a secession movement going? I hear you guys down there had a go at that a while back, think there’s any latent sympathy for trying it again?
Apr 6, 2009 - 8:28 pm 40. Meremortal:I read the title, and the first thing that came to my mind was:
“Get out while you can.”
But…
You don’t have to be super-rich feel under the gun these days. Also, you don’t have to leave the country to go Galt. I have a “Galt-lite” plan: Semi-retire early, live a simple lifestyle with time to volunteer locally. Work part-time. Refuse to produce a large income and become a wage slave for the government. It’s really quite enjoyable outside the big city rat race. I can still visit Babylon every so often. Between the taxes and Obamanomics, making that next million is going to be very difficult anyway. I am looking forward to this new life, because you see, I’ve earned it.
Apr 6, 2009 - 8:29 pm 41. MuscleDaddy:There are still tax-havens yet unimpressed by The One.
(I used to look for bad people there – now the bad-people are in danger of being crowded out by good-people)
As for a ‘where’ – I’m looking at New Zealand.
– MuscleDaddy
Apr 6, 2009 - 8:30 pm 42. Paul C:Heh, who is John Galt?
The rich can go to Monico.
Apr 6, 2009 - 9:02 pm 43. Tennesseefree.com » Rich Man, LEAVE!:[...] sobering essay by PJM’s Bill Whittle: where he asks THE RICH (you know, those evil Americans who have acquired, inherited, obviously [...]
Apr 6, 2009 - 9:40 pm 44. Mark:http://www.immigration.govt.nz/
Apr 6, 2009 - 9:45 pm 45. EXXXXcellent:Inspirational, as usual. Your story is inspirational. Thanks for sharing such a real story, such a real part of your story. I feel as if I have learned more about a friend.
It’s amazing to realize that someone with your talent for writing and conveying a great deal of sincerity all at once could ever have lost your professional way, as you describe. It shows the essential necessity of will and intention and guts and courage and determination.
I can use more of those qualities, right now, and maybe most of us can, to see and admit how we (I) contributed to my (our) current situation. Was I too lax in my spending? Did I allow myself too much debt? Am I asking enough of myself? Did conservatives stand up for what is right in the past 10 years or so? Did I?
I don’t know if we can “fix” this administration’s insane policy-making. Maybe some Americans have to learn the hard way what “little-c communism” looks like from the inside. Maybe they will never learn and the United States economy will crash and burn and they will never understand what happened. The film OTHER PEOPLE’S LIVES should have been enough. Reading The Gulag Archipelago. The Road to Serfdom. The Noblest Triumph. –in a free society, all easy to obtain. And yet apparently, we dwell in darkness, or at least some of us do.
So I don’t know how bad the macrocsm may get. I don’t know if it will ruin our economy. But I CAN do better in my own life. I CAN expect more of myself. Then, no matter what, I will be better off.
Thanks for what you wrote, for your hour honesty and vivid story-telling. I feel encouraged. I am so grateful to hear of your hard climb out, and your success. The victory is yours.
I also cannot help but feel that trying to corral Americans into a soviet-style command-and-control economy may be like trying to herd cats. I HOPE SO. I’m watching lots of Gingrich and looking at solutions. Today, I read the Charles Murray piece in the WSJ and his remarks about American exceptionalism. http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/
Maybe there is something good that will come from all this. They say, “God protects children, fools, and the United States of America,” and I think they say that for a reason. If we all improve our integrity and self-reliance, that will be a good thing. I don’t know how long it will take, but I think something good will come from this.
All my life, I have looked at the people in Germany in 1932 and thought, “I would never stay if that started to happen.” And now, where is there to go? Really, where is there to go? America is the best hope for freedom in the world. If the United States isn’t guaranteeing freedom, can little countries like New Zealand protect themselves….? I’m asking for help from the divine, benevolent unseen forces. You never know what good thing may happen.
Anyway- best of everything to you! And all the readers, too! As Tiny Tim would say, “God bless us, every one!”
Apr 6, 2009 - 9:52 pm 46. Barack Obama (by proxy Paul A):“But I took it. By some unknown action of grace or luck my new employer advanced me $300 and I bought a used bike and rented a dirty room in a cheap motel.”
A *used bike*?! Not stimulating the economy by buying a new, green, hybrid bike? For shame! Moreover, you used this conveyance to get to your job, making this *capital*. This bike of yours is subject to a capital gains tax of 20%. Please deliver the rear wheel to the Internal Revenue Service no later than April 15.
Apr 6, 2009 - 10:08 pm 47. newton:Loved it, Bill. Thanks for telling us your story.
It is true: sometimes, we need to have that kind of “destitute therapy” in order to shake us out of our laziness and do something useful with our lives. Many, many who are “rich” actually came from middle class or even humble backgrounds, and some endured the diet of rice and beans for a time before making their millions. It sure makes them appreciate how far they have come.
Take my husband, for example: he was born to parents who still are working poor, but would never accept a government handout (My father-in-law is a disabled veteran and does the most menial jobs, but you never see him at a welfare office. Ever.) My husband ate wild corn and spaghetti with some kind of mushroom sauce his mom used to make out of the canned stuff for many, many days, and many other dishes without flavors or anything else. He had to help fix his father’s 1968 pick-up truck too many times to keep it running. But all of that encouraged him to work for everything he wanted – and has – his entire life. He had no means to pay for college, but a scholarship or two came to him – and enrollment to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, from which he graduated as an engineer. He’s been in the maritime industry ever since, making the big bucks that liberal arts graduates such as myself once thought we were “entitled” to but never earned.
No, he’s not “rich”, and neither am I; however, we look around at a populace who never had it as hard as he did when growing up, expecting to get a bag of goodies from the government, thus losing their own freedom and not caring one bit about it. This “my freedom for a bag of goodies” attitude from that 52% of the American electorate has infuriated us in such a way that we don’t trust them anymore to do what is right, but to follow their Welfare King like sheep. But that is not what America is about – it never was.
Sometimes I ask myself, “Where do we go to start over?” We simply can’t. That’s why moving to other countries to escape the taxes and repression, although adventurous, is a bad idea. We must remember that there is so much good in America still, and that it still worth staying here… and fighting for.
When more people wake up to the fact that Political Correctness and “The One” are fast taking us to the feet of Robespierre’s guillotine, they will respond furiously. I’m counting on that.
Apr 6, 2009 - 10:11 pm 48. Bill Whittle’s Message To The Rich « Nice Deb:[...] Whittle’s entire piece to learn a little bit about his own journey from the whiny, demanding, sponge of his youth, to the [...]
Apr 6, 2009 - 10:27 pm 49. Topics about Actors » Archive » A MESSAGE TO THE RICH:[...] CheapDVDBlog.com put an intriguing blog post on A MESSAGE TO THE RICHHere’s a quick excerpt…so hard and sacrificed so much so that we could become so spoiled and … making out like a bandit: he was a successful commercial actor in [...]
Apr 6, 2009 - 10:54 pm 50. Kyle Haight:Whittle is correct, and that fills me with shame for my country. Time was, we were better than this. Hopefully, with the right ideas, we will be again someday.
As to where one can go — you don’t need to leave. You just need to stop being ‘the rich’. Close your business, cut back your hours, live on your savings. Fall back into the lower middle class and stay there. And most importantly, *tell people what you are doing and why*. Explain to people that you could have been creating wealth and producing values that, through trade, would have made their lives better, but that you chose not to because you were tired of being vilified for doing so. There’s been a lot of talk on the right about ‘going Galt’ lately, much of which misses the point. It’s not a political or economic statement, it’s a moral one: people should not be attacked and condemned for living, and living well.
Apr 6, 2009 - 11:01 pm 51. Toads:The real problem in America is one that Republicans are too afraid to even notice, let alone address.
Black people vote 90-96% for Democrats, no matter what.
Without the black vote, Leftism would merely be a curiousity. There would be no signifant block of leftists in Congress. Not only would McCain have beaten Obama, but McCain would be the Democrat and the Republican would be a staunch conservative. Obama would not even get past the IL state senate.
But Black people vote 90-96% Democrat. They vote for the part of slavery, of KKK leader Robert Byrd, of George Wallace’s segregationism. They vote for that very party with near unanimity.
That is why we have these problems in America. Blacks will vote Democrat no matter what.
Apr 6, 2009 - 11:02 pm 52. Andrew X:Katherine – RE: “why have we suddenly become Enemies of the People?”
Because the ones who consider you enemies are in fact robbers. And Willie Sutton, who was one, explained robbers the best.
“Why have you suddenly started coming after us?” the bankers asked the felonious Mr. Sutton.
“Because you’re where the money is”.
Apr 6, 2009 - 11:03 pm 53. Toads:In an indirect sense, this is already happening.
No, the present rich in the US are not leaving.
But the new immigrants that go on to become rich – the Andy Grove, Vinod Khosla, Sergei Brin crowd – the new generation of these people has stopped coming here.
No one notices that they have stopped coming here. But the people who IMMIGRATE to America and become billionaires are no longer coming here.
Why should they? America is becoming more anti-business, even as the quality of life in their home countries (India, China, Eastern Europe) is rising. In the past, coming to America was the obvious choice. Now, it no longer is.
So the immigrants who come here and become billionaires, are no longer coming here in this generation.
That is how Bill Whittle’s request is actually happening, albeit very indirectly.
Apr 6, 2009 - 11:08 pm 54. Terry_Jim:“tax deductions are a highly inefficient way to fund social programs.”
As opposed to the marvelous efficiency of tax Dollars funding social programs, Mr.Berg?
Apr 6, 2009 - 11:08 pm 55. Toads:Pretty soon, some smart country is going to offer incentives to American expats who have advanced skills (doctors, engineers, MBAs, etc.).
That smart country will be Dubai, Singapore, Taiwan, China, or Australia (the last sane Western country).
They will offer tax holidays on income earned. They will offer great schools and gated communities. They already offer tropical weather. They may even offer to reimburse the expat taxes that as US emigre would have to pay to the US government (knowing that these people will generate far more than what the government of the new country will have spent upfront).
But they will make an overt effort to attract these people. Corporations try to lure talent all the time. Countries will too, after they see that America’s talent pool is ripe for the picking.
America is stupidly increasing taxes even while labor and capital are becoming more mobile, and other regions are becoming moe ambitious.
Apr 6, 2009 - 11:22 pm 56. Pajamas Media » A Message to America’s Rich:[...] Read the entire post here. [...]
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:10 am 57. lee:I don’t get it. It just seems to me that Obama’s new proposal will result in the rich not donating to private charities PERIOD. Those superficial arts and universities program won’t receive donations now, and other programs that supposedly better address “communal” needs will continue to get nothing.
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:41 am 58. WhyamInotsurprised?:Thanks for sharing. Although I currently live in the Philippines (and I am not rich btw), I think that some people in the States need a good ass-whipping! We need to fight. How in hell a President can fire the CEO of a publicly traded company is beyond me. Where are the lawyers when their country needs them? But suffice to say that things will only change course when the threshold of pain is exceeded and everyone who voted for BHO says “Hey, why am I bleeding here?” I didn’t vote for this! Just human nature. Democracy and her people are extremely tolerant and usually don’t take action until they’ve truly been bloodied. The goodl ol’USofA is still the best place on earth and we cannot just give it up for the likes of morons running the government and know nothing about history. Maybe the next step beyond a Tax day protest is to have the rich, en-mass, not pay their taxes. What will the government do? Arrest millions of people? Fat chance. Not as long as we keep our powder dry. I say call BHO out and see how far his trash talking gets him. Always remember, almost half of those voting wanted nothing to do with BHO. And most of those who voted McLame, didn’t really want him either except for lack of a suitable alternative.
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:52 am 59. cubanbob:The rich will move their money out of the country. Period end of story. Once its out of the country it will be very hard for the government to get at it as long as the funds are not derived from from internationally recognized crimes. The rich understand the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. They will legally avoid as much as they can, pay what they must and move the net out. Once the funds are out they no doubt will be put in to various trusts in accordance to local law which will then supersede US Law; i.e. the Death Tax and as long as they pay the local (much lower) tax they will in compliance with local law and the US Government can shout all it wants but the effect will be nil. That is how its done and how it will be done. If you have any doubts that is why the EU and the G20 are always whining about ‘harmonized’ tax rates. However the more debt they pile on the weaker the position they will be in relative to the tax friendly countries since they will need them in essence to recycle back the funds in the form of bonds. When China has a lower effective tax rate than the US under the democrats proposed rates something is way wrong here and the money will leave.
There are plenty of decent banks outside the US, better managed and with no toxic loans who will gladly take large sums of legally earned funds. In the long run the dumbest thing Obama has done is nationalize the banks. No sane person will keep significant sums in a nationalized bank. The more The Merry Marxist Democrats do the faster the capital will take wings.
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:57 am 60. Noah Guttman:Come to Israel
With the highest number of startup companies per capita in the world you will be more than welcome.
Apr 7, 2009 - 2:40 am 61. Shlomo Freed:Does this remind anyone else of Atlas Shrugged .
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:06 am 62. Brian:We, the wife and I, have been discussing this at length.
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:32 am 63. Dr K:The U.S. is still better off than much of the world and while it’s attractive to think one can up and leave, the question becomes where?
My grandparents came here because it sucked there.
If it sucks here, then where?
So we stay.
We’ll fight.
At first it will be with all available civility.
Once the gloves come off, it’s going to come down to all available evility, err, something like that.
I’ve personally never met anyone more angry, resentful, just plain savage than those who’ve not gotten what they want, been led to believe they’ve been wronged by not getting it and must now pull others down to make it fair.
We’ve already had the kids and feel no desire to raise the adult children currently in drivers seats.
So now it’s our time to prepare for the grand kids.
It took many generations to dig this hole and it will be many more plus the effort of rebuilding and maintenance before it gets filled back in.
I’ve told my children all along that I could only hope to be a better grandfather than father.
God willing, it will be so.
Hope that makes sense.
You are not thinking south enough. Try Tahiti.
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:35 am 64. Guydreaux:Where to go?
Try Canada
Yes, it is a social democratic but responsible
The Canadian Liberal leaders don’t hate like Obama and his supporters do.
More importantly, the social democratic “safety net” is not funded by massive, unsustainable borrowing as Obama proposes.
ALL Canadian citizens pay high taxes in return for their benefits. Everyone is in it together.
I wish there was a secure, stable, free-market country with a solid currency and a liberal immigration policy, but at least Canada has 4 out of 5. The US has only one- it is secure.
I know there will be some arguing for Singapore, Dubai or Costa Rica, but I don’t believe they are very secure on a 30-50 year view (assuming you are bringing your kids).
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:48 am 65. drjohn:Yes, what we need is for Obama to mandate how much you will donate.
Wait- he’s doing that now.
Good column, Bill.
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:52 am 66. Richard Watts:Who is John Galt?
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:00 am 67. physics geek:Bill,
A treat as always. I had planned on posting my story of woe, but I’m glad that I didn’t as your story was much more eloquent. And if I were one of the Rich (I’m still working on it) I’d be packing my bags already.
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:11 am 68. Old Soldier:It was with good reason that one of the Ten Commandments explicitly forbids envy. It is a poisonous emotion. We are now ruled by a political party based on envy.
I’m not sure leaving is necessary – as long as your money leaves. The Kennedy’s, Heinz-Kerry’s, and Rockefellers have moved much of their fortunes offshore beyond the grasp of the American taxman.
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:38 am 69. Run For Your Lives, Wealthy People! « A1A South:[...] 7, 2009 · Filed under Economy From Bill Whittle: Well, I read this article in the Washington Post, and I thought: there you have it. The top ten [...]
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:40 am 70. bandit:Give Mr. Berg some credit for honesty. Unlike when Biden says paying taxes is patriotic (is that why all those Dem pols don’t pay them?) or Obama (spread it around – manure?) at least he acknowledges he wants to take your money away from you to do what he wants with it.
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:41 am 71. Fragmentarian:There’s always something a little hysterical about Mr. Whittle’s essays, it seems to me. Run away but come back when it’s safe? Does that include the dirty stinkin’ “masters of the universe” and their paid political hacks of both parties who got us here? Like the CIC, in his life, I don’t think those guys actually worked that hard and if they did it was all work in the wrong direction. A tunnel to nowhere. Close Bill but not quite there.
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:50 am 72. Broadsword:At the website of the (”Sound the Trumpets!!”) New York City Coalition against Hunger one reads this “The Coalition works to meet the immediate food needs of low-income New Yorkers and enact innovative solutions to help them move ‘beyond the soup kitchen’ to self-sufficiency”, at the top of the page. But at ‘New and Noteworthy’, clicking on the article ‘Partnership Calls on Obama to End Hunger’, we read this: “The New York City Coalition Against Hunger and World Hunger Year both emphasized that the government must increase the availability of food stamps, WIC, affordable housing and other programs.” Stand on your own with more “other programs”? At their Research & Policy tab the link says one in six New Yorkers live in “food insecure households”. (Full disclosure, none of my foods are insecure, though a few of them are depressed, the smoked clams are homeless, and after 10 days the milk is positivly suicidal.) At the Post article Mr. Berg was sour with covetousness and envy. The article stank from lack of charity. Here is the closing sentence from a letter from the local Franciscan Brothers of Peace, asking for donations: Thank you for helping us in our time of need. Know that you and your loved ones will continue to be remembered in our daily communal prayers. May God bless you for all you do for us and for those we serve. Sincerely Yours in Christ.” Faith, Hope and Charity trumps the clenched fist of envy every time. (P.S. Send $ to the Franciscans at 1289 LaFond Ave, St. Paul, MN 55104 if you are so moved. They thank you.)
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:53 am 73. Brock Ducharme:Why would the rich leave when they have been gaining on their total share of assets AND income in the United States over the past four decades, while the middle class works 40% more hours with flat and declining income?
I agree with you. Let the wealthy sell their American assets and go be wealthy in France, China, Burma, Mongolia or somewhere else. After all, it’s 100% meritocracy, right?
Go on – LEAVE. I dare you to find another population on Earth captured by the myth that anyone can become rich even while experience 30% increases in education, housing, and healthcare.
By the way, where are you writing this blog from? Belgium? Why don’t YOU leave and take YOUR talent where they aren’t constrained by the horrible, lazy, greedy American middle class that is taking so much from the poor, hapless owners of United States assets. What, don’t like the chill of Denmark or the heat of the Phillipines?
Go. And put a Goldman Sachs executive under each arm.
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:02 am 74. Happi:Where to go – where to go.
I think there should be a well organized exodus to someplace where we can take over! If 10 million conservative wealthy people moved to Canada, would that be enough to tip the electoral balance there? We’d just have to ensure that global warming occurs to make it more comfortable there.
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:03 am 75. EgregiousCharles:If we want to, productive Americans can simply outspend the robber’s election campaigns and replace them all; and it’s cheap from a financial perspective.
One stimulus package cost us $787,000,000,000. Combined spending on House and Senate races, by all parties, winners and losers, in 2008 was $1,449,500,640. In other words, they’re spending 543 times more on this one package than they all spent on their campaigns. If one tenth of Americans spent one tenth as much as Porkulus took & will take from us, we can outspend all candidates for Congressional open seats in 2010 COMBINED by a factor of 5.4.
All we have to do is let our individual tax burdens guide our donation to candidates that will slash our tax burdens, and the nightmare will be over.
That’ll require finding serious tax-cutters in the primaries, the incumbents aren’t it.
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:11 am 76. David S:Please take Bill’s advice. If you are a rich person who thinks that paying 2% more in taxes is so burdensome that the advantages of living as an American cannot justify the cost – by all means, move. Your greed and selfishness are not in demand here.
Peace.
DS
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:20 am 77. Igor:This land is not Godforsaken, Mr. Whittle, it is we who have forsaken God. For this we are going to pay, dearly.
Sigh.
(Good advice, by the way. I hope the “rich” do as you suggest, it’ll be hard on the rest of us that don’t have the option of going where the grass may be greener, but the hole we have dug ourselves in has to be addressed and filled up again so that this once-great country can stand on higher ground!
Keep up the good fight, Mr. Whittle, and all the rest of you readers. Our Country is counting on your innate goodness.
Is it TEA Party time yet??
Igor
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:24 am 78. GlobalObserver:Wonderful analysis and a fun read.
And I wish it were that easy, but you can’t necessarily avoid contributing to federal social programs by living abroad.
I don’t earn one penny on U.S. soil, am not employed by an American company, but every quarter I airmail a check representing “estimated taxes” to the IRS for foreign-generated income.
It’s called the price of citizenship, and the only way to escape the obligation to give a free hand-out to the U.S. government would be to renounce mine.
Maintaining a U.S. passport is very, very expensive!
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:43 am 79. The Original Kit:A good read, Bill, somehow both inspirational and terrifying. But I still don’t know where The Rich could go and be safe. Going to Israel is probably a bad idea, because if The One continues on this path, Iran and Co. will have their nukes and Israel will be wiped out. Israel’s a good place, but they can’t stand up against a coalition of death-cultist armies. The only solution I can see is for The Rich to live in this country, but not be of it.
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:14 am 80. Igor:There is a bit of a movement amongst the Ronulans, the hardcore Christians, and radical homeschoolers called “homesteading.” The idea is to get yourself as independent as possible. These guys grow a lot of their own food, they run off solar or water power, they make things instead of buying them. They study folk medicine and midwifery and animal husbandry. They barter a lot, which keeps Big Brother out of their business. They haven’t eschewed technology for ideological reasons, but because they saw this coming before we did.
I think that as things get worse, we will see more people doing this. If more people decide that making money and having “regular jobs” isn’t worth it anymore, I think we’ll see more people from diverse backgrounds and cultures homesteading. I hope they do.
This land is not Godforsaken, Mr. Whittle, it is we who have forsaken God. For this we are going to pay, dearly.
Sigh.
(Good advice, by the way. I hope the “rich” do as you suggest, it’ll be hard on the rest of us that don’t have the option of going where the grass may be greener, but the hole we have dug ourselves in has to be addressed and filled up again so that this once-great country can stand on higher ground!
Keep up the good fight, Mr. Whittle, and all the rest of you readers. Our Country is counting on your innate goodness.
Is it TEA Party time yet??
Igor
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:20 am 81. Hockey_Mom:Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
Bill, thank you! I truly enjoyed reading your article. It stirs the patriotic love I have for our country and brings tears to my eyes. Can we change what is happening – or is our great country lost? I do not see any true conservative leaders in DC nor any up and coming people that can lead. We need a leader to unite behind. Who will it be?
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:23 am 82. The High Cost of Envy : Tennessee Republican Party:[...] Bill Whittle says it’s time for the rich to go. [...]
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:30 am 83. airfoil:Has the Sun risen on the New America yet? No, but it is inevitable. America’s sons and daughters are prepared, they just haven’t tumbled to the inevitability as yet.
The Tension is implacable, palpable. Long a Nation of civility, (Outdone only by the cousins, UK), it is time to feel your emotions. Lose the silly Fear of others finding out that you really CARE. FEEL.
For those who need a list:
1. Display your IMPATIENCE (To DC)
2. Allow your own INCIVILITY to be seen
3. Permit the ANGER to FUEL you
4. Grow your FAITH in yourselves and others
5. FIND your leaders (Are you One?)
6. ASSOCIATE (It is in the CONSTITUTION)
The rest will follow, as “night follows day, thou canst not then be false to any man….”
Your judgment of others is hobbling your freedom, the faithful are not fickle. Do not listen to the evil that keeps the “sides” at 50-50.
AF
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:36 am 84. Kim du Toit:I’m not one of The Rich — just a poor immigrant, really, who never made it big — but nowadays, whenever I dream of making it big, those plans always include shifting the bulk of my fortune out of the country.
Think of what it takes to make a naturalized citizen, who CHOSE to become an American over twenty years ago, want to leave the country of his dreams.
Thank you, Uncle Sam.
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:53 am 85. waltj:Sorry, but I’ve lived in some of those other places, and they all have their own drawbacks. Take Australia. I lived there almost 4 years, departing in late 2007 (just after Kevin Rudd became PM, which had nothing to do with my departure). Oz isn’t bad at all, but here are some things to consider. Their tax burden is higher than ours, wages generally lower, private firearms ownership essentially illegal, and the infrastructure, especially outside of the major cities, surprisingly primitive. There is nothing remotely comparable to the Interstate Highway System or the Autobahn network in Australia. And while the Aussies do some cutting-edge research in areas like medicine, they simply don’t have the industrial or population base to take full advantage of economies of scale, with the result that almost everything costs more there. So it can be a great place to live, but it’s not without its costs, usually in a literal sense.
Singapore? Great place to make money, terrible place to practice politics. The People’s Action Party (PAP) exists to rule, not to guarantee individual rights, and it doesn’t tolerate anything other than token dissent. Try to criticize a government minister by name, run as an opposition candidate, or organize a mass movement against a government policy, and see how long you avoid harassment by PAP operatives, the press, the police, and various lawyers. You’ll be lucky to avoid prison and bankruptcy. On the good side, Singapore has a very favorable tax structure, an honest, efficient civil service that follows its own rules, a well-educated, hard-working labor force, and an environment that is business-friendly in the extreme. Just don’t expect to run against City Hall.
These are just two examples. Not that familiar with NZ, although I do know that they just did themselves a favor and voted out their long-time lefty whackjob PM Helen Clark, so things might be looking up there. What I do know is that I have lived overseas for many years now, but I haven’t found a place better than the USA to come home to when that day finally arrives.
I know enough about lefties to realize that if the “rich” depart with their money, the Left will simply find another enemy. It’s in their nature. Their system can’t survive without an “other” to hate.
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:07 am 86. robertl:Nothing HATES success more than failure…..
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:07 am 87. TalkinKamel:Good to see you back, Mr. Whittle!
Sadly, the Left will always be able to find enemies: if it’s not the rich, then it will be something, or somebody, else: Rush Limbaugh, Jews, Christians, “Kulaks”, Conservative bloggers, etc., etc., etc.
And the rich they shall always have with them. If the truly rich leave, they will simply go after the Middle-class. Then, they’ll go after anyone who has anything at all, and refuses to give it to the state for its worthy social programs, which are going to end social inequality, blah, blah.
Some are going John Galt voluntarily, and others are doing simply because they have no more money to give the government. It’s going to be an interesting four years.
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:22 am 88. Fragmentarian:It’s all relative isn’t it? As with kings, the rich are dead. Long live the rich.
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:27 am 89. Tennwriter:We need more Horatio Alger stories to diffuse envy, and to show those desiring to improve themselves that it can be done.
I sit here, trying to develop the skills to take me to great success, but in my field, its very difficult. We who are trying need to encourage each other, and build our faith in the Lord.
I will say one thing I blame the rich for. Perhaps it was because of the Self-Interested Man Model (like the Economic Man Model before it) or I don’t know what, but I see a rejection of true conservatism for a limited, shrivelled version more in common with libertarianism.
The WSJ is happily pushing for more illegal immigrants which helps the rich and messes over everyone else. This is only one example of the shrivelled politics being pursued by the well-to-do.
But such a political force cannot stop the Democrats. You need full-blown Conservatism, across the board, to stop the Democrats. The wealthy need to realize their choices are Socialism or Conservatism.
I suspect some expect to hide behind their lawyers and loopholes, and enjoy unearned high status in the socialistic utopia. But for those with broader concerns, who are patriots, realize that some tiny little base of fiscal conservatism is not going to hold the line against the looters.
Its well if you work hard and boldly dream and succeed, and give to charity, but if you for reasons selfish to your class, or for simple lack of understanding choose the WSJ version of conservatism than you are consigning your country to the flames.
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:27 am 90. OvertheCliff:I completely agree, Bill. Speaking as one who has shared a lot of the same experiences, I absolutely agree.
The problem is … where would they go? What sane, modern western country is left? We’re the last one, and our freedoms are disappearing faster than the middle class’ retirement savings.
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:30 am 91. David Schmitt:Bill,
A direct hit, as always. But don’t kid yourself: you may not consider yourself “rich” but I guaran-damn-tee you that the fact that you own an airplane makes you rich in the eyes of the left. And by “rich”, I mean “target”.
The good news is that your symbol of excess is also your vehicle for escape. Got room in that plane for a family of six to take along? I’ll make it worth your while. We’ll meet you at PDK Saturday night at midnight, cash in hand!
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:37 am 92. cubanbob:There is an assumption among many commenters that capital flight equals emigration. The two may at times parallel depending the political situation but they are not the same. It is quite possible and indeed most likely the rich will stay here but there money will be elsewhere. Many old time rich like the Rockefeller’s and the Kennedy’s have had substantial fortunes held outside the US for decades. How do you think they can stay rich and their children and grandchildren stay rich despite the death tax and the rather high personal tax rates(even with the large exemptions and allowable deductions; ironically less in effective rates than what Obama is proposing) in the not too distant past?
Kim, this too shall pass. My wife (a South African) and I understand what you are expressing. If not for clowns like Zuma, some money in rand CD’s would very interesting right now. As a friend of a friend said to me recently the future of SA is tied to the World Cup. If they can pull it off then there is hope. If not, its well and truly over with. I’m betting America will shake this Marxist induced fever in the near future. But only a fool puts all of his money in one basket so a foreign bank account with Swiss Francs is in my very near term future. Nothing sneaky, all taxes that cannot be legally avoided have been paid and the accounts information will not be hidden from Uncle Sam. It just won’t be in his grasp should Comrade Obama and his Merry band of Marxist Pranksters succeed in their plans. My family has been through communism twice before, in Europe and in Cuba and as the song goes we won’t be fooled again. Still I have hope and there are signs of resistance and push back but it is going to be a rough four years before this country can finally kick to the curb the marxist trash.
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:38 am 93. Bret:Leave? No thanks. Here’s a few reasons:
1. The U.S. is the world’s policeman. Without a strong U.S., the rest of the world is a very, very dangerous place.
2. It’s much easier to stay and just work less. I’m planning on transitioning to working 1-2 months a year as a consultant. Then I get to continued to be paid at a high rate yet pay no taxes (I’ll be joining the bottom half) and enjoy all the benefits of being here in the states! No downsides!
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:50 am 94. ChooseTheHero.com » Blog Archive » What if there were no more rich to steal from? Part #2:[...] PJM piece is headlined with “A message to the rich” and that message is the almost the exact message that John Galt, in the book, gave to those [...]
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:00 am 95. view from afar:Between dicentra 33 and the beginning of this article of mr Whittle, Europe explained, the US needs to fight though and “the rich” have just got to find a way to fight loudly and get their message across. I also think some of the top money (Kennedy types) can hide their money so well that they just don’t care that taxes go up, their wealth isn’t available to be taxed, so why not have the system sound fair to the lower classes?
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:10 am 96. Jolene:Thank you for a great article … truth of human nature completely laid open bare … Thank you for showing us the failure of a government support society with no goals.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:11 am 97. cubanbob:Joel Berg is an idiot. His hatred for his betters is a classic case of cutting of your nose to spite your face. Much wailing and lamentation will in his future when donations to his charity drop of considerably. It will be a bit of evil joy to see the food fight among lefty champions of the poor like him vs. the academics and the artist community for the remaining charitable donations of the rich.
The question never asked is why are poor people in this country allowed to stay poor? What right does anyone born and raised in this country who is not mentally or physically handicapped have to be poor after the age of 25? An IQ of 85 coupled with a strong work effort is more than enough to escape poverty by any reasonable measurement. Yes life has its ups and downs but unlike the third world where very few of the poor can escape institutionally imposed poverty, here if you are not mentally retarded or otherwise handicapped if you are poor after age 25 it is by your choice. On a ten year average any high school drop out can earn twice to three times the minimum wage level if they are willing to work hard and take initiative. The poor are poor by choice. They always take the wrong choice when offered a choice. Go to school or drop out of school? Drop out. Have a kid you can’t afford with a bum who won’t commit and can support the kid? Have the kid.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:15 am 98. goy:Get vocational training for a decent job or hang out? Hang out. On and on it goes because the welfare state allows them the choice to be poor. Something the lefties have not considered is that if there is a backlash strong enough to push out the Merry Marxist Democrats, there may very well be a backlash strong enough to roll back the welfare state substantially and the poor will either sink or swim. The overwhelming majority will swim. The rest, the crazies will need to be institutionalized and the drug and alcohol addicted will need treatment if they are willing (can’t break an addiction unless the addict is willing) or face eventual incarceration for the crimes they inevitably will commit. Some people simply cannot be helped.
THAT was the E3 essay I’ve been waiting to read for months.
Thanks Bill.
I have to wonder whether we became Ugly Americans around the same time our median standard of living rose above the majority of the rest of the world. The 5000 Year Leap has apparently been more than most other nations can bear to watch – left behind in the dust as they have been.
Was that the peak of Western Civilization, as represented by American prosperity? Was that the point at which foreign envy and domestic, middle-class guilt started to push America back down the other side of the cycle, using the slippery slope as their motive force?
Having felt that identical emotion for identical reasons myself, I’m confident that the anger you felt toward Fritz was your own guilt and self-resentment – and not a little fear – turned outward. You recovered, with help from your betters, and look at you now!
Unfortunately, a growing number of Americans are becoming completely incapable of recognizing their betters. Growing numbers are becoming completely incapable of taking the first step in that recovery – that maturity. They actively avoid it, in fact, and instead embrace the child-like, entitlement mindset as the “correct” formula for a civil society.
For the Great Entitled, while their intellectual maturity may continue to progress, allowing them to justify their dependency using ever-subtler logical fallacy and ever-nastier ridicule, their moral maturity is arrested at the university student level, where all of their wants and needs are taken care of by others. This becomes the Gold Standard: This is how it must be for everyone – so that it can continue to be so for them. And any institutions or beliefs that stand in the way of this standard must be dealt with.
Small wonder that this all-too-human behavior is encouraged by those who know it will buy them power over others, over those who make themselves completely dependent upon the State.
Wealth creation through capitalism and a Constitutional, Republican Form of Government has thoroughly discredited the zero-sum, statist notions that threaten us. The quicker more Americans are encouraged to realize this, the shorter our approaching dark times will be.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:21 am 99. PD Quig:There is no Atlas Shrugged remake coming, and John Galt is a pipe dream. The doers in this society are the small, hard-working businessmen, not the Dagny Taggarts or Hank Reardons. The ‘captains of industry’ long ago sold out to the unholy banker/politician axis.
The little people that spawn the ideas and create the jobs will be ground into plup under the heel of Obama’s coerced equality machine. This is America’s Mao-like cultural revolution in slow motion process.
Atlas Shrugged isn’t coming. Leni Riefenstahl is.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:24 am 100. Combat Wombat:Before y’all think of bailing, better read the HERO Act- wherein if you leave, the government has the right to presume you have done it for tax purposes, and then tax every asset you own as if it were sold at ~ 50%, and force you to pay tax to the US, as well as your adopted country for the next decade. All attached to a bill supporting veterans….Nice job, KKKongress!
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:29 am 101. airfoil:OOPS ! Unintended consequences? There are at a minimum six million jobs occupied by folks who work, suck up services, send gobs of money outside the country (already). They aren’t citizens either. The reason they do jobs “Americans won’t do” is because of the Welfare State. Why WORK for small money when others will pay you not to lift a finger or put down the Remote?
Bill, are you suggesting the alien workforce move out of California? Or the Wealthy?
BTW, It is NOT the government who sends money to deadbeats. It is YOU. There is no such thing as “government money”. Exactly when, other than physical possession, does it become Nancy Pelosi’s?
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:32 am 102. RebeccaH:Joel Berg, Certified Nitwit, decries The Rich for their ideas on how and where to give their charitable donations, while claiming the bulk of his come from The Middle Class. Who does he think The Middle Class work for? What does he think is going to happen to his donations when The Middle Class no longer have jobs?
Do these people even listen to what they say?
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:41 am 103. Locomotive Breath:Bill, you’re a white male and as such are the beneficiary of white privilege. Had you been black or a woman, you would never have gotten those jobs no matter how hard you tried because “the man” would have been keeping you down. /sarc
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:48 am 104. Stephen J.:A well-written essay, as always; though as I usually do when reading your stuff, I tend to see an inversion of it which explains a *lot* of the opposing psychology.
You say at one point: “Take your wealth and prosperity and inventiveness and hard work and vision and insight and bold risk-taking and joy in seeing growth and wealth creation and just go away….”
And I realize: The problem here is that most of the people in the United States — or at least 51-52% of them — do not associate anything except “wealth and prosperity” with “The Rich” any more. To a goodly share of the populace, “The Rich” is NOT inventiveness, hard work, vision, insight, joy in increasing wealth creation. Do you want to know what the perfect representative of “The Rich” is, in this viewpoint?
“The Rich” is Paris Hilton.
Or, more accurately, Paris Hilton as she comes off to most people peripherally aware of her – a relatively untalented, annoying and everpresent figure who inherited without earning every advantage she has – her looks, her connections, her resources – and appears to have done so little with them as to seem comparable to the worst decadence of 1780s French nobles. And while I have no doubt Paris *does* work pretty hard to maintain her career, I have to admit: If she came on the TV and started bellyaching about how people don’t appreciate the vision, talent and insight it takes to create wealth using her money… well, it wouldn’t go over too well, is all I’m saying.
It’s not just disparity in wealth that causes envy. It’s wealth disparity that is perceived to be “unjust” or “unfair”. We can accept the idea that someone has more money than we do if we can *see* how hard they work for it, or how valuable or rare what they do is — very few people object to rich doctors, for example. But when we see someone given insane amounts of money for, apparently, doing nothing more than what we believe we could do equally well, we grind our teeth that mere fortune could be so capricious. And so the seeds of social upheaval are sown.
And while Paris Hilton may not actually be what she seems to exemplify, the problem is that “The Rich”, as a group, are NOT universally these paragons of commerce whose rising tides float all our boats. There *are* those among the wealthy who are precisely the kind of useless, greedy parasites populist rage decries; some — by no means all, but some — of the current economic crisis *was* precipitated by people in command of immense resources who made stupid decisions about how to commit them, in full confidence they would never really suffer for bad decisions whatever the outcome.
*That’s* the definition of “The Rich” that people are really reacting against. Not those with a preset wealth level; not those who make foolish decisions about how they spend their money; but those whose accumulated resources are so great that they are buffered from the consequences of failure, in a way that most of us are not and never will be. And nothing arouses more furious resentment in people than being told you have to endure a hardship by people who are not currently enduring that hardship themselves — someone so rich he risks nothing telling us we have to risk to succeed; someone so rich he need never work another day in his life, telling us how hard work is better for you than being supported; someone who seems like a useless parasite telling us how important and valuable people like him are to society; etc. Sheer raw personal envy is easy to denounce; justified resentment of what the Vietnam soldiers used to call “REMFs”, Rear Echelon Mother F****rs – the people who call for sacrifice from others while sacrificing nothing themselves – is a great deal more universal. (After all, isn’t one of the most pointed criticisms levelled at the global warming movement how little its leaders contribute to the sacrifices they call for from the rest of us?)
This might be another reason that companies should be allowed to fail, rather than bailed out. How else can people see that “The Rich” can be vulnerable too? If they are not, only through taxes can they be made so.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:49 am 105. view from afar:StevenJ you are right, but the problem is, like you say nothing can touch that wealth, except time (look at many of the noble families in europe, many are broke, many are also now common). Eventually someone will screw up enough to lose it, but it may take three or more generations…
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:01 am 106. ctmom:Well done sir. I nominate you for President of the United States!
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:21 am 107. Knight:Bill, Thanks! Similar story here; been there, done that, better now. It took Ayn Rand to shake me loose – someone who demanded my best. Well done!
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:31 am 108. Diane:Beautifully written…kind of choked up over here.
Strange days.
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:36 am 109. sethstorm:Remember – there is no place on earth that you can hide.
Given a sufficiently motivated government like the current one, you and your assets can be extracted. Even if you’re in the middle of a easily toppled island, Latin American country, or in the middle of the despotic PRC.
They need to pay for their attempts to be the “masters of the universe” and for their messing with our nation.
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:40 am 110. stewart is losing:yep, I’m already out and won’t come back until I see Obama and his mess of clueless idiots gone for good.
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:43 am 111. Chuck Pelto:TO: Bill Whittle
RE: But!
If ALL the ‘rich’ leave, who’s going to pay the taxes to support all those ‘non-productive’ people?
Oh….I get it…..
….the ‘latter-day kulaks’ like the rest of US.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:44 am 112. cubanbob:[History repeats itself....]
Stephen J: no matter how useless a Paris Hilton is or appears to be, she is not a parasite as long as she is spending her money. Actually she is a pretty shrewd business woman who parlayed her rich bitch skank appeal in to a rather profitable business in her own right.
Wealth is only unfair when it is garnered from corruption and political patronage.
The government can take over GM’s pensions and health plans for the retired workers, pay off the creditors and turn it the company in to a employee owned stock company and it will still fail. It will fail because the mentality of the line worker who thinks he is worth more than he is worth despite all evidence to the contrary and who fancies himself capable of running a multi-billion dollar company. Its the entitlement mentality that needs to be broken. It is not unheard of employee owned companies being struck by the very same employees.
You are right in one respect. Bush under panic made a huge mistake. he should have guaranteed the depositors 100% of their money as of a given date and let the bad banks fail. That way the shareholders and the other creditors would have taken the hit and learned accordingly the lessons of moral hazard. AIG should have allowed to fail in retrospect as well with the depositors of the failing banks whose failure was the result of AIG’s failure also be insured to the full amount of their deposits. AIG: Eliott Spitzer’s fault. The failure of the NY State Insurance Dept.. to properly regulate. Again the senior lenders made whole (the depositors) and the rest take the beating. Moral hazard. Investor beware. Until such time that mess is allowed to clear by market forces, sane fiscal and tax policies are implemented and bankers and other lenders are expected to act as such and not as a disguised form of welfare and patronage we will never get this country truly right.
An example why should FDIC coverage be ‘free’ to the depositor? Should it not be charged based on the riskiness of the bank and paid for by the depositor? Should not the depositor be allowed to purchase excess coverage if the underwriter will issue coverage above the coverage level of the FDIC when this is ultimately resolved? To those who say we need more regulation, every institution that failed was regulated. And Congress whose job is to supervise the regulators not only failed miserably in its supervisory capacity and indeed is in large part the creator of the current mess is absolute proof the regulation is not the panacea bandied about by the progressives. Even now Congress is failing to act sensibly regarding account insurance as it encourages people to deposit money in the worst of banks since they pay the highest yields just as long as you have less than 250k in the account. The system works when greed is tempered with fear and as long as the government diminishes the fear it encourages excessive speculation and greed.
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:46 am 113. K:Who is John Galt?
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:49 am 114. Chuck Pelto:P.S. I’m suddenly reminded of Jerry Pournelle’s Falkenberg Legion series on how government works.
Pass the borloi….
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:51 am 115. Sam:I think if you leave America it is because you always hated it in the first place.`
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:53 am 116. Mike O:Mr. Whittle, Sir; you always have such a profound way of expressing a sentiment some of us have held for awhile (http://politicalinquirer.com/2009/02/26/the-upcoming-emigration-of-capital/).
Alas, some of us came to the conclusion long ago that the ‘pinks’ were rapidly getting more numerous than the ‘grays’ (to reference your seminal ‘Tribes’ work) and that this administration is a reflection of that, but not wholly so. So my family has long been preparing for probable emigration: my son is fluent in Chinese (his mother’s tongue) and I have made contacts in the more stable parts of English-speaking Africa. While were are not deep into that 10% range, we knew a long time ago that this nation was becoming hostile to a traditional work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit. Our retirement businesses- and my son’s future engineering career- will very likely be ‘offshored’, along with our taxable income.
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:56 am 117. Lonevoice:AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:56 am 118. Hermy:Recently, while in Argentina and Chile, I came across many Americans considering relocating to these countries. Although I don’t speak Spanish, I’m in the process of getting dual citizenship for my boys. I’m not alone. Though I’m just one “rich” American with an exit strategy, there are others … many others. Frankly, I was surprised to find so many like-minded Americans in Chile.
My plan is simple: I’ll stay in the US for the next decade, if possible, so my children can be educated. If my country doesn’t correct itself politically, my boys will start up their companies on foreign soil. I’m also going to run for political office and try to “adjust” the political trajectory of my country.
This plan grieves me deeply. I’m sure readers see cold, rational calculations but this is my home, country and everything I’ve known and loved. I love this country. Many people here are honorable and good. But our political system is fast becoming punitive and I can’t see a way of undoing the damage.
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:57 am 119. Liz Le Mond:Good point, Stephen J.
I too shake my head in disgust at the celebrities who seem to make piles of mony for no other talent than a knack for drawing attention.
But when resentment drives people beyond grumbling that “nobody should make that much money” for “just playing a game,” “just acting” or “Fill in the Blank,” to proposing actual policy based on that resentment, they’ll bump into a little detail that Ayn Rand pointed out, which is the basic problem with socialism. If you accept the premise “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” you need somebody to define “ability” and “needs.” And once you take that road, it leads to the death of freedom.
Socialism, in short, is for ants, not people!
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:00 am 120. PM:What would we do without skanks??
Paris(h) the thought.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:06 am 121. Original Pechanga:Excellent commentary. Everyone wants bread, but nobody wants to help till the soil, plant the seed, water the wheat, weed the plantings, harvest the wheat and bail and transport it…
Recall here in S. Cal, the Chino area where the dairies were plentiful, then came the houses and then the complaints about the flies and the smell. So the dairies moved to Central California and then, the cost of milk went up due to transportation cost increases. Now, people in Chino and S.Cal complain about the high price of MILK!
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:16 am 122. ajacksonian:Ah, would that everything go Shrugged way, but that future was given a different face and made far worse and less Galtifying. That world was described in its microcosm, and was one of the lockstep society under control of those who were replaced so often it did not matter who was at the top. ‘Nice’ authoritarianism isn’t even Bravely New Worldish… no as our world changes it becomes more like The Village. That is not the world where you get to run away, get to slack nor even be un-mutual. It is a world that wants your compliance in everyway, and every secret you have and then, when you are compliant and prostrate, all you need do is brainlessly follow what you are told to do. You don’t even warrant a name, no Galts anymore… just numbers… numbers to be swapped out so that the faces change, but the numbers remain the same. And while all numbers are equal, some have precedence and priority.
When you think the Gultch is the place to be, remember how kind society will be to you:
“No.2: “We can treat folly with kindness . . . knowing that soon his wild spirits will quieten, and the foolishness will fall away to reveal a model citizen.”
No.6: “That day you’ll never see.”
–Episode: Dance of the Dead”
Even worse is the Earth does become a very small place these days, and when the central economy to the world shifts, its webs of trade and commerce shift others with it. Not an Empire, heavens no, but the spider with its web to everywhere and while a strand may appear fragile, it is stronger than steel. With the ever present observing and finding, the wishes of those in charge become clear:
“No.6: “The whole earth as. . . `The Village’?”
No.2: “That is my hope. What’s yours?”
No.6: “I’d like to be the first man on the moon!”
–Episode: Chimes of Big Ben”
What we have seen over the past 40 years or so is not exactly heading into Shruggy Galtian ways, nor into the older venues – they were updated with a fresh idea of smiley faced niceyness where you never become an adult, never learn your freedom and never do figure out that your liberty is vested in you, not someplace else. You do not stop this by running, as the places to run to will be no haven, no respite, no cozy place to be more or less creative away from it all. Nor do you stop it by giving yourself up to the system and then trying to stop it, as the inertia of it is something that cannot be stopped from the inside and even negatie work inside still creates more of the beast you wish to end.
You can’t run.
You can’t hide.
But you can do the one thing necessary, and declare yourself to be an individual.
That is a hard thing to do, to refuse all enticements, all goodies and all sweet talk of ‘reasonableness’ so long as you submit. You will be hated, castigated, despised and in turn you will get niceness, presents and even hand-outs: yet they are all filled with the same poison and hatred for you for daring to be an individual.
Then do you know you are a Prisoner, and the way out is to understand what is demanded of you and let the petty tyrants of conformity know who you are:
“I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own.”
Your life belongs to no government, no other person, it is yours to live as you wish. It is inalienable from you. To get others to stand, you must stand as individual and accept the consequences. That is a hard thing to do, to declare that man has the right to join with others to set the course of society and not have it set by an elite, a minority, a tyrant or despot. Declaring such freedom and exercise of liberty is to put your life at peril.
Yet it is the only way to live free.
Or die.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:18 am 123. Tristan Yates:Excellent article. The USA still doesn’t understand that it has to compete for both labor and capital with other countries that are much hungrier.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:21 am 124. Doctor T:I’m a 48 y.o. physician, and I’ve been considering doing just that. The problem is I might have to do it without my wife, who is at heart a socialist. There is hope though. She can still learn as she lives through these times. I wish her parents (my In-Laws) were still alive and living with us. I believe they’d get her attention back from Obama love. You see, her parents were in Germany (that fell behind the Berlin wall) and Lithuania. They saw Socialism up close.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:39 am 125. Michelle:This was a fantastic article. Well-said, passionate,and oh-so-true.
I applaud you, thanks for writing this.
-M
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:49 am 126. sethstorm:(since dissent seems to be a rarity here…)
#80:
How much of the faults were a result of evading regulation (Derivatives, CDS)?
As for Spitzer it wasn’t his fault as much as him being a man taken down by business. He was doing too well at his job. So far, he appears to be doing quite fine, even if he’s no longer in office.
Regulation failed because there were instruments that evaded regulation.
Since my #79 is being skipped somehow, figure this might do.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:52 am 127. sethstorm:
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:54 am 128. plutosdad:The USA still doesn’t understand that it has to compete for both labor and capital with other countries that are much hungrier.
Not if it is at great cost to the citizens.
Mr. Berg is out and out lying. I work for a charity that helps feed people in need. I also have a lot of friends in the arts who depend on charity.
It is well known in the industry that charities that help people in need to better during economic downturns than other charities like the arts, or the environment or animal groups.
So right now, my company is overflowing with money, we’ve hired more good people at market rates and are revamping our IT and infrastructure to lower costs (we lowered cost of food distribution by 40%) as well as using that money to feed people.
But people I know at other non profits are struggling, theaters here cannot find the funds to keep operating, animal shelters are out of money, etc.
Berg is lying his ass off.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:55 am 129. Allen Stanford lived frugally, not counting private jet and boat.:[...] a man worth $2.2 billion.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:56 am 130. Saint Holiday:Wow! Whoever you are, I want all your future writings sent directly to my inbox. At least, I want some kind of alert when you have written anything. Pure truth. I think you and I would get along really well.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:57 am 131. Mike M.:I’m afraid that you have all missed the Big Secret.
The TRULY rich aren’t moving cash out of the country. They’re buying Congress!
Often quite literally…the Democratic Party has been recruiting millionaires as candidates for about fifteen years.
And once in that position, they write themselves massive tax breaks – and divert billions of tax dollars into their pockets.
The people who are paying..and Paying…and PAYING are not the hyper-wealthy. They are the skilled professionals. Doctors. Engineers. Small businessmen. People wealthy enough to be wrung for taxes, but not wealthy enough to buy real political power. People who haven’t really got the money to leave.
This could get nasty. Consider the situation. We have a nation that is being spent into bankruptcy by a political class that is corrupt, inept, and largely tax-exempt. We have an upper middle class that is overtaxed and disenfranchised. And the economy is tanking.
The last time this happened was in 1788. In France.
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:01 am 132. Sparky:You think rich bashing is bad now? You haven’t seen nothin yet. When Obama tanks the entire ecomony (not if but when), he and the rest of the libtards will point fingers at the rich. A deflection that will work, the sheep will go mad with anger. The rich did this to you, it’s their fault, not the governments. I fear for anyone who lives in a nice home and makes a comfortable living. I really think we’re going to go through some extremely scary times.
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:07 am 133. Bill Whittle implores The Rich to leave the country:[...] they still have a fondness for it, that is (emphases original): As an American and a patriot, I implore you – I go to my knees and beg you [...]
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:07 am 134. Ms. Attitude:77. Locomotive Breath: You can’t say he succeeded in getting employment because he is white. Remember we have affirmative action.
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:11 am 135. john allison:WOW! Good job.
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:20 am 136. view from afar:cubanbob, I didn’t think that Stevenj was critizing Paris Hilton’s wealth, I understood that he was stating what he thinks a lot of the envy people view when they see Paris Hilton’s wealth, if that makes any sense…great explanation for those who might agree with what stevej wrote though.
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:27 am 137. Bonnie_:I am hoping that Texas declares its independence. If they do, please give my family a heads up so we can run for the border.
Texas’s GDP will exceed the rest of the Socialist States of America in a decade. Plus they already have nukes, so Washington won’t even think about going to war to bring them back.
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:29 am 138. Gery:“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” Exodus 20:17
They covet fields and take them by violence, Also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, A man and his inheritance. Micah 2:2
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:35 am 139. Ms. Attitude:Bill, I too lived a very lean life after my divorce. Just like you I relied on family, my church and friends to help me and my children. They helped me by giving to me and pushing me. I attended college full time while working full time at a low wage job. Both of my sons are better men because of how we lived and succeeded. Now I am not rich but I’m living well compared to what I came through. I never envied those that helped me but aspired to be like them.
I met a young girl in the same situation I was in and wanted to help…she took and took and had no desire to better herself. All she would say was how unfair it was that I had so much more than her. I kept reminding her that it came with sacrafices by me and by my sons. She never got it…I quit helping her and never heard from her again.
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:58 am 140. Rick:“As for Spitzer it wasn’t his fault as much as him being a man taken down by business.”
Love Client #9 was taken down by Big Hoors?
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:59 am 141. Scott:A great article and a great suggestion around renouncing one’s citizenship and leaving the U.S. Alas, Congress has addressed this escape attempt with the HEART legislation in 2008. If you want to leave, say goodbye to 30% of your assets
See:
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11554721
for a summary -or-
start on page 39 of this document: http://www.house.gov/jct/x-44-08.pdf
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:02 pm 142. hawkeye:thank you mr. whittle, that was an inspiration. that is the american way. and for those who still do not understand, please watch bronco billy. god bless america
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:03 pm 143. Aaron:Outstanding piece.
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:11 pm 144. Tom Cuddihy:I’m depressed about where we’re headed, but I’m not going anywhere, I plan to stay and fight as long as I can.
I’m active duty military and trust me it’s not just the private sector that’s under assualt. Just since November OMB has promulgated a raft of more onerous procurement rules (in addition to the already existing 2000 pages of the F.A.R.) that have effectively shutdown most contracting just by the avalanche of new paperwork and MUCH longer timelines. It’s the bureaucratic equivalent of a tire iron jammed in the spokes.
This happened long after the beginning of the 2009 FY to have a “cramdown” effect on the DOD funding. Expect a LARGE percentage of DOD funding to go unexecuted at the end of this FY. THIS IS INTENTIONAL: it will allow the administration and congress to lie about how much money the DOD needs for FY10 and beyond.
The upshot will be to artificially lower the DOD funding request because “they didn’t use it all last year anyway,” with the immediate result of gutting the DOD budget with less congressional resistance. In reality what it will be doing is putting off needed procurements for another time. once again, mortgaging the future to pay for the present.
Private citizens, beware. This is coming towards you next. They won’t come at you with guns and handcuffs (not till after the guns are illegal anyway.) They will come with an avalanche of bureaucratic new requirements and an army of new Obamacrats to enforce them.
I plan to stay and fight. I’m calling my Republican senators to tell them what’s happening here at the pointy end of the spear.
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:27 pm 145. Chuck Pelto:TO: Bonnie_
RE: When….
….was the last time you read Bruce Catton’s Civil War Centennial Trilogy?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:41 pm 146. Moonwatcher:[History repeats itself....]
Mr. Whittle,
I see no recommendation as to whether or not United States citizenship should be formally renounced by those depart the U.S. for the reasons you give. Please advise.
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:42 pm 147. Stephen J.:“Stephen J: no matter how useless a Paris Hilton is or appears to be, she is not a parasite as long as she is spending her money. Actually she is a pretty shrewd business woman who parlayed her rich bitch skank appeal in to a rather profitable business in her own right.”
Strange as it sounds, I agree. And I actually rather like Paris as a performer — her reality shows are boring, but I enjoy her music and occasional acting. (She appears to have no problem taking the mickey out of herself, for one thing, which is a character trait I always admire.)
As viewfromafar correctly notes, I cited Paris not because I think she actually *is* that kind of parasite but because she’s the first person most people think of when asked to describe someone like that. Which means the big problem is public perception, and the manipulation thereof.
(This, ironically, often being cited as one of the weaknesses of capitalism by its opponents: it necessarily assumes everyone is a rational and adequately informed economic actor, and can fall apart if that no longer obtains – though that says nothing about whether the irrationality is spontaneous, or deliberately induced by information distortion.)
“Wealth is only unfair when it is garnered from corruption and political patronage.”
Granted. The problem being, when the part of the wealth that’s dishonestly gained grows large enough that it makes it easy for everyone who doesn’t have it to believe it was *all* dishonestly gained… well, that’s when rational economic action falls by the wayside.
This is one way in which the Internet has done the public no favours: it has vastly increased the speed and breadth of our information access, but has simultaneously decreased the attention span needed to *comprehend* that information in a useful way. When you need an economics degree to understand how the wealth of the rich really benefits you directly, the demagogues will always have the advantage of oversimplification.
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:00 pm 148. Emma:The best article I’ve read on here to date.
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:12 pm 149. Liz Le Mond:Too true, Stephen J., about demagogues oversimplifying.
I’ve always suspected that one reason businesspeople and other types our media don’t like often won’t respond is that they know a meaningful response won’t fit into s sound byte, so why bother?
And to show how bad our media bias can be, I understand that exit polls after the election showed that most voters knew nothing about Mr. Obama’s questionable associates or the fact that he won his first election by getting everyone else bumped off the ballot. But, OTOH, most of them DID know about Sarah Palin’s clothes, and her daughter who’s a single mom.
Sad, huh?
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:30 pm 150. anonymous:Bill,
Great idea, but where should the rich go? America is the last line of defense of free societies; now that the Left has consolidated its hold on power in the US, the remaining free countries in the rest of the world will fall like a row of dominoes. This is what is happening in Latin America and the former Soviet states; rollback. Asia is next. We will do nothing about it. It is an unlimited, low-level war being executed at a slow, deliberate pace. The recently announced defense cutbacks, enabled by the engineered economic crisis and insane social spending disguised as economic stimulus, is simply intended to prevent future administrations – should they be inclined to resist the global socialist consolidation – to be incapable of responding. The Cold War is over; freedom lost. Forget becoming rich…I’d spend your money now, on food, survival gear, guns and ammunition.
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:43 pm 151. CrusaderPatriot:Some of these business leaders are really going to feel stupid (if they aren’t already) for donating to the Obama campaign and voting for him. They better pony up for conservatives in 2010/2012 or this situation is only going to get worse. Obama is a marxist and his administration is already a disaster for the country and the world! CrusaderPatriot.com
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:48 pm 152. wayne:I know of a place where the climate is nice, most of the people are great, and for a few tens of billions you can buy the whole country and run it without interference by the US and you’d do nothing but improve things.
The Philippines.
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:50 pm 153. A MESSAGE TO THE RICH « Random Thoughts:[...] Mr. Berg – who runs a charitable foundation that feeds the poor — explains things for us thusly:… [...]
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:53 pm 154. ricpic:The rich will continue to move to Florida, Nevada, Wyoming. New York City and New York State will implode. And that abomination California, too This is a bad thing?
Apr 7, 2009 - 2:01 pm 155. “A Message To The Rich” « The Constitution Club:[...] quoting probably around half of it, below, but as they say, read the whole thing. The Washington Post ran a column a few days ago, in which a Mr. Joel Berg applauds the Obama [...]
Apr 7, 2009 - 2:58 pm 156. Sebastian Shaw:How is New York’s proposed Millionaire’s Tax coming along thanks to the witless head blind Governor Patterson? I see all the millionaires & billionaires leaving New York City for the South for lower taxes for their businesses & homes. I’m not even psychic, but this will come to pass.
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:08 pm 157. Don Bodell:Bill–
You continue to make us proud. Thanks for the insightful and thoughtful comments.
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:25 pm 158. catlee:137. Bonnie_:
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:03 pm 159. merry:Thank God I live in Texas. I am ready for the independence of Texas.
The Rich should buy AMERICA and kick out the proles. Send the non-producers to Africa.
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:06 pm 160. Leatherneck:Congress has become an abomination. They think it is OK to give away what is not their’s to give. Our Tax Money! Our Grandchildren’s Tax Money!
Fools!
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:16 pm 161. GreatHairySilverback:On a side note… April 7th… HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL!
2009… the Big Five-Oh. Wow.
Hump Year.
Coincidence? I think not.
Loved the piece though (as always)
GHS
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:21 pm 162. Some vegetable:Now that Bill is turning fifty, instead of spending time on quick little essays like this, will he turn to more effective mass persuasion and finally get his movie into production?
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:32 pm 163. ~P:I can offer nothing to BW’s comments other than something perhaps apropos to the sentiments in the comment thread. Hear my story and have the courage of your convictions.
I am a conservative teaching in a public/charter school. The Red brigades have come for me. I saw the first signs shortly after last fall’s presidential election. The left was stoked; they were out for blood. My blood it seems because I’m considered an annoyance. I got my first reprimand for my rendition of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain during a faculty meeting. Someone felt threatened. Fair enough. Swinging a cavalry sword during a faculty meeting is a bit over the top even if the item is a genuine artifact.
Rule #1 – The Left has no sense of humor.
I next got reprimanded because my personal file did not meet state standards. WTF? My personal file is empty (as it should be by my reckoning). “No, no, no,” said the lady from the State Board of Education. But I can’t stuff a classroom full of kids into your file cabinet, so what’s the point?
Rule #2 – The Left is all about bureaucracy.
Then I got accused. Serious sh*t. I “did” two of our graduating seniors in the back seat of a car during lunch. Woohoo! The old fart still has what it takes! Umm . . . I’m 52 and my clapper hangs limp in the bell of my sex.
Rule #3 – All men are sexual predators.
The whole damn thing went round and round, and then round and round again until a narrative emerged.
Rule #4 – The truth is irrelevant. Only the narrative matters.
Now here’s the kicker because I want my conservative brethren to take heart. More than that, I want you to gird your loins for a fight. Conservatives don’t RUN. We FIGHT. So, f*** you if you want to run away to Chile. I don’t want you on my team. I only want fighters on my side. And fight we will. By God, fight we will. Because here’s the kicker:
#Rule # 5 – Leftist ideology is based on lies. The “narrative” is a fraud. Nothing enduring can be based on falsehood.
I reckon we either stand or we don’t. Easy Button. I reckon so. Only I’m not going to punch it. I’m gonna blow it away with 00 buck.
~Paules (out)
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:27 pm 164. TN4th:People who make the money should be able to deploy it where they wish, whether to pamper pets or have a university building named after them. And no one advocates any abridgment of that. However, when we give a tax deduction to contributions, we are providing public dollars (via those deductions) to the contributors. Tax subsidies come with strings (or ought to) that reflect the public interest. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that. Tax dollars should go to the public good.
The fact is that middle income people tend to give more to charities that support severe human need, while the wealthy do tend to like to see those names in lights. Plus, the wealthy get a bigger tax break per dollar contributed than the middle class do. And finally, there are limits in the tax code on how much charitable deduction is allowed. The most generous givers already top out, and receive NO deduction for the excess they contribute over the limit.
If you want to consider inequities in the tax code, consider the carried interest loophole that allows hedge fund managers to have a 15% tax rate on their earnings, while their secretaries are paying 28% on theirs.
So, what’s the problem with a marginal decrease in the amount of deductions the wealthy can take? This is tax policy … it’s not limiting what they can do with their money. It’s just taking away a tiny bit of the subsidy from the rest of us. I’m not seeing it.
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:07 pm 165. goy:I’m not going to presume to speak for Bill, but in reading through the comments here it seems like a number of folks have missed the point, or I have. I’m open to either possibility.
John Galt, and the people who “Galted Out” in Rand’s epic were not The Rich to whom Bill is addressing his appeal. Or at least I hope they’re not.
Do read Atlas Shrugged. The characters in Atlas who ultimately withdrew their support from an increasingly broken, increasingly socialist society were the productive, creative, motivated, industrious, innovative, vital risk-takers, investors, inventors and workers whose efforts made Atlas’ modern age possible – for everyone. Despite the fact that they were exploited by power-hungry looters, they were not The Rich – only some of them had wealth that would put them in the top 5%. They did not represent a class or social group identified by the looters as “evil”. They were not vilified (unless they refused to donate their services “for the greater good”). They were simply exploited as a resource to be used by the ruling class to placate the masses over which they ruled.
The Rich in our real America – those 9-odd million who are shouldering over 60% of the income tax burden for a nation of over 300M – are being exploited too, but in a different way and for different reasons. More importantly, however, they’re becoming the object of genuine hatred, which I believe is Bill’s point. And the more they’re exploited, it seems, the more they’re hated.
The Rich are, in fact, being systematically vilified and demonized. They are being blamed for our economic woes, through innuendo and outright claims that their greed has destroyed our economy and that they have “taken” what others should “rightfully” have. Somehow, The Rich have more than their fair share. The lie used to support this incitement is the idea that there is a limited pot of wealth and that if one person has much of it, many others will have less. This is the zero-sum lie upon which socialism is based, and that lie is part of why socialism fails one way or another whenever it is applied on a large scale with real, live human beings – human beings who don’t fit the idealized automatons and their enlightened “planners”, envisioned by Marx, Lenin, Che, Dewey, James, Ayers and, yes, our “spread the wealth around” President.
Where these two groups intersect, I believe, is that small set of individuals – the ones with a foot in each group – who have been rewarded financially for their industry, innovation, creativity, perseverance and/or willingness to take on risk. In a capitalist society such as ours, that reward typically rises to a level determined by the value of what they’ve achieved – a value determined by the marketplace. As life for all gets easier through their efforts (as well as others), those who prefer dependence over individual responsibility devise ever more complex rationalizations for claiming those rewards for “all humanity”, in the name of “social justice”. Not all at once, mind you, but as poor, benighted David S puts it – 2% here, 2% there, and on and on – until the total is 40, 50, 75% or more. After all, The Rich have “so much”, they can afford to give most of it to the rest of us, no? And since we live in a democracy, they reason, the majority can simply vote this policy into law. It’s happening before our eyes.
The difference between these two groups may seem like a subtle and/or an almost trivial one, but I think it’s vital to understand it. A nation can be built or rebuilt without an initial pot of wealth. A nation can NOT be built or rebuilt without the brand of folks who decided to move to Galt’s Gulch. A society without the latter never advances much beyond the hunter/gatherer or subsistence farming level – even possessed of all the natural gold ore deposits one could imagine. No doubt many of the global warming moonies out there would like nothing better than to see us regress to that state, but the fact is that it’s not going to happen short of a genuine apocalypse.
Humanity’s natural tendency – absent systems intended to foment conflict for the purpose of concentrating power over many into the hands of a few – is to learn, to progress, to innovate and to prosper – to create wealth. But unfortunately, we have slid far down the slope into just such a dangerous system; a system designed and managed by a wholly unaccountable, professional political class with no one’s interest at heart but their own. So yes, The Rich should take as much of their wealth as they can transfer or hide, and leave these wannabe despots with no resources to exploit but the labor of the People, themselves.
We’ll see just how long they can make that last.
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:12 pm 166. M. Report:Amazing…Gracias
Full-coverage comments on Law, Politics, and Economy, but little on TEOLAWKI;
If there is another Great Depression, the breakdown of infrastructure in the US
will result in a death toll in excess of the 25% figure beyond which the Dream
will die, and not be resurrected. P.S. The rest of the world will follow;
Nowhere to hide. See Heinlein’s “Future History” for the gruesome details, _OR_
move to the Sunbelt, max your income, finance a grass-roots political movement,
and install sane government from the local level up.
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:14 pm 167. Sally:I read with awe and recognition of my own story. I too have a similar tale and the villain was my Mother. God Bless her. I still made mistakes after, but she alone out of tough love was the catalyst. Personal responsibility and hard knocks people. That’s what makes Americans great.
I agree with you Sir. Let the Rich go now. With a plan to return when all is right with the World. Show a little tough love to your Country that that you nurtured and loved.
Amazing article. One for the Decade Sir. I cut and paste in my Journal with all due respect and thanks.
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:31 pm 168. Sabine:I agree – you hit this one right out of the park. I look forward to reading more from you!
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:59 pm 169. one of my own:164 goy . . . Sorry I missed that. Could you repeat that?
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:06 pm 170. Dedicated_Dad:Bill,
Fantastic as always.
One critique: No need to leave. Hunker down and “go Galt” right where you are.
A friend owned 5 thriving coffee shops. He closed 4, cut his work-hours, laid off 40+ people, and has the same income (same salary he always paid himself) – everything else once went back into building his business but Dear Leader’s threats on Capital Gains taxes put an end to that.
Another friend was adding a crew to his cleaning business every 3 months. He now has stopped, and is cutting back for the exact same reasons.
I am personally now working just exactly enough hours to keep me on the top end of the minimum-tax brackets. I will NOT buy a new car, TV, or anything else that I can avoid which will put tax dollars into the hands of The Looters.
Further, I’m stocking up on essentials with savings because with the coming inflation the goods will appreciate faster than the dollars I’d otherwise have saved will DEpreciate. I am thus removing my liquid capital from “the system.”
There are MILLIONS of us.
Just like “No child left behind” in practice only served to ensure NO CHILD GETS AHEAD, the current “spread the wealth around” will only ensure NOONE has any.
I REFUSE to participate. PERIOD.
DD
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:31 pm 171. Roy Mustang:>>>David S: Please take Bill’s advice. If you are a rich person who thinks that paying 2% more in taxes is so burdensome that the advantages of living as an American cannot justify the cost – by all means, move. Your greed and selfishness are not in demand here.<<<<
Assuming you pay income taxes, I assume you pay above and beyond your minium tax burden each year.
If not, why don’t you just shut the f*** up, mind your own business and keep your filthy hands out of people’s wallets?
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:25 pm 172. Bee:My buddy forwarded this to me, his “liberal friend.” You guys have been preaching to each other too long. I wrote him:
Do you really believe this histrionic crap? The top tax rate in this country is what, 36% (guessing)? And more like 60-70% in say, Sweden? No one is proposing near those levels here, but the rich in those Western European “socialist” countries still putt putt around the Mediterranean in their yachts, enjoy their villas and servants, and their private castles. And the less well off there still work and also happen to enjoy a social safety net that would make Ayn Rand spin in her grave. Sounds like win-win to me.
Having a just, equitable society is about a lot more than just creating a dependent class of welfare takers. The mere thought of contributing a fair share, or donating to charity without expecting a hand out back in tax breaks, is really making the upper class quake this badly? The game has been so rigged in their favor for so many years that I think they’re the welfare queens of the fallen Republican party, so totally dependent on low taxes and government for and by the rich, generational wealth transfers, and cheap labor that they can’t make an honest buck on their own anymore and worry about nothing so much as a level playing field.
I’ve read all of Ayn Rand and it was fun. So was believing in Santa Claus when I was a kid. Grow up already. No one is going to take your BMW away.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:54 pm 173. venividivici:We’ll see just how long they can make that last.
The Russians, who had a stomach for exploiting people and forcing them to labor for the “common good”, could only make it last 70 years.
Unless the Left can get 9 blind mice on the Supreme Court, I doubt it will last that long in the US. Anyone who can read the Constitution can plainly see it doesn’t support social democracy.
Before y’all think of bailing, better read the HERO Act- wherein if you leave, the government has the right to presume you have done it for tax purposes, and then tax every asset you own as if it were sold at ~ 50%, and force you to pay tax to the US, as well as your adopted country for the next decade. All attached to a bill supporting veterans….Nice job, KKKongress!
You know, for someone with a long enough time horizon moving to a jurisdiction with a low enough tax rate, that’s a price worth paying, especially now that Obama’s minions are letting the cat out of the bag that he’s going to be raising taxes on the middle class.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-06/obamas-bad-debt/full/
Hard to believe the US will follow the European model just as the European model is about to break down (due to external debt, which we are also now piling on. Even European governments don’t have the guts to tax their citizens at high enough rates to actually pay for their social schemes), but history has a funny sense of humor that way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:21 pm 174. WhyamInotsurprised?:Dear Airfoil #101, or should I say Airhead,
Regarding your brilliant comment, “BTW, It is NOT the government who sends money to deadbeats. It is YOU. There is no such thing as “government money”. Exactly when, other than physical possession, does it become Nancy Pelosi’s?”, do you think Mr. Whittle sends his hard earned money “voluntarily?” The fact that you are defending Grandma Pelosi proves you are an Airhead of extreme proportions. The problem is that people like Pelosi think that our tax money is “theirs” and that they can do more to re-engineer society. What they are really doing is creating a large enough electorate that is dependent on “their” largess that nothing can challenge their power base. So, why don’t you just STFU?!
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:46 pm 175. Me:@ comment #30 – Katherine:
> …where are we supposed to go? Australia? Don’t make me laugh.
As an Australian, I’d very much like to know what you have against my country? We kind of like it down here.
Apr 8, 2009 - 12:51 am 176. Wednesday prawns | And Still I Persist:[...] And yet more bad news — or, better said, sad advice to the successful. (Hat tip to Rand [...]
Apr 8, 2009 - 3:46 am 177. To the Rich: Leave While You Can « Poppypundit:[...] · No Comments In view of the increasingly punitive tax policies of the new administration, Bill Whittle has advice for the rich in America: Leave the country. Leave. Just go away. Retire to the Cayman Islands or [...]
Apr 8, 2009 - 3:59 am 178. Chas C-Q:RE:
Anontrepreneur: Consider another Southern state: Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, and Texas all outrank Geogia for entrepreneur-friendliness.
I’m from Georgia. Too hot and humid. Mildew. Cockroaches. Atlanta’s a murder capital. I love living in East Tennessee. Beautiful surroundings, perfect climate, central location in the region, no income tax. ‘Nuff said.
–
Apr 8, 2009 - 5:23 am 179. Chas C-Q:Chas C-Q
(Links failed. Sorry!)
RE: #39 — Anontrepreneur:
Consider another Southern state: Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, and Texas all outrank Geogia for entrepreneur-friendliness.
Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top States for 2006
I’m from Georgia. Too hot and humid. Mildew. Cockroaches. Atlanta’s a murder capital. I love living in East Tennessee. Beautiful surroundings, perfect climate, central location in the region, no income tax. ‘Nuff said.
–-
Apr 8, 2009 - 5:40 am 180. LS:Chas C-Q
Woooooo-weeeeeee…..DAMN-that was good!
Apr 8, 2009 - 5:59 am 181. demasonroa:evaporation clathrate different brightness read below
Apr 8, 2009 - 6:25 am 182. airfoil:why…..etc. You may have said what I meant better than I. The money belongs to the people into and through the Government, always. Congress acts as our agent, or should, finding a democratic republican solution to MINIMUM responsibilities agreed to in our Constitution.. It is Their profound arrogance and assumption re: our wealth, that infuriates ME. I’ve had folks misunderstand me before, never as completely as you. Shake?
AF
Apr 8, 2009 - 6:57 am 183. airfoil:Oh, and Pelosi is only the tip of the iceberg. Not the real problem, she is the Parrot on the Pirate’s shoulder. Metaphor.
Apr 8, 2009 - 7:00 am 184. mph:I really appreciated this piece — also hit home on a personal level. For years, I got by much on the goodwill and charity of friends letting me sleep on couches or subsidizing my life in some way while I eeked out my existence…
Apr 8, 2009 - 7:53 am 185. Meryl:The government doesn’t have any money.
That’s why they keep taking ours.
Apr 8, 2009 - 8:29 am 186. Tristan Yates:Sethstorm: You are buying into a false choice created by the statists. A country that rewards and respects both labor and capital would be a wonderful place to live. Imagine a government that has as its first priority attracting and supporting the most productive people in the world and creating the ideal investment environment. You as a citizen would have incredible job and opportunities and a much better opportunity to create wealth. Taxes are low because the government is paving the roads and catching criminals not trying to redistribute the wealth, and because its responsibilities are limited, it actually does a good job. With an education and a little hard work, there’s nothing you wouldn’t be able to do in a place like that.
Apr 8, 2009 - 9:02 am 187. Landpimp:Comments #73 and #76 prove Bill’s point perfectly
Apr 8, 2009 - 9:07 am 188. Liz Le Mond:Good anaylsis, ~P, but I might add one point to rule 5:
Those Leftist lies are so well concealed in a fog of “compassion,” “irrefutable statistics,” and carefully selected sound bites that many well-meaning people can’t see through them.
That’s the only reason the leaders of the Lunatic Left can still drum up a mass movement, after the bloody fingerprints their wonderful ideas have left all over the history of the 20th century…
And wasn’t it Lady Thatcher who said, “Compassion is cheap as long as you’re spending someone ele’s money”?
Apr 8, 2009 - 9:13 am 189. deguello:#168 TRITAN;This country respects neither labor nor capital;it respects race based protection racketeering,criminal speculation, outsourcing away our prosperity,and making profits by vulgarizing and cretinizing the culture.We are done;there’s nothing for it but to let it crash,and then commence the second American revolution based on the priciples you espouse.
Apr 8, 2009 - 9:16 am 190. JS:Sir Willy . . . Hey! it was a very attractive, grey . . . and chewy too. It was the chunks that made you who you are today; sorry about that or you might have gotten in to UM. Excellent essay in spite of that, however. The creatures who make the soak-the-rich(*) rules don’t have to play by them, and they certainly never understood the ‘golden goose’ fairy tale. Their ONLY driving factor (raison d’etre) is greed/envy and the self-gratification derived from creating ‘class warfare’ as a justification.
Apr 8, 2009 - 9:31 am 191. goy:(*)ANYone who has more than them – however, derived/derived.
179. Chas C-Q: - (Links failed. Sorry!)
Dear Management,
Sure would be nice to have some Preview, don’t'cha think?
your friend,
g
Apr 8, 2009 - 12:21 pm 192. VanN:Excellent article. Per Atlas Shrugged, the class envy and resentment of the poor in substituting the primacy of their need over the moral values of production and the rich, need only be matched by the sense of guilt many of the rich feel to “sacrifice” to and empower the poor, thereby debasing in their personal lives what they have accomplished in their business lives. We need to expound the superior morality of capitalism to defend against this need-based socialist prattle, whether it is nationalized health-care or global warming. But in a tangible sense, what more can we do? The selective method of instituting and perpetuating this class warfare is our tax code. The present system needs to be scrapped and replaced with a consumption based tax setting one tax rate on the purchase of new goods and services only, for everyone (with a pre-bate up to poverty levels). Why should we tax income and savings and investment, education and many private donations? Do we want less of these things? Instead, let us tax consumption. I remind you that a highly progressive income tax is the second plank of the Communist Manifesto, recommended for destroying a capitalistic society. Class warfare, as promoted in our tax code, is dividing us as a nation and turning politics into a divisive battleground. Can you imagine what a 0% income tax rate would do to promote the economy; if business paid 0% tax; if all mortgage principal and interest could be paid with the equivalent of pre-tax income at interest rates fully 25% less than today, because interest would not be taxed?? Promote the Fair Tax!
Apr 8, 2009 - 12:37 pm 193. goy:Bee,
Two words for you: Oprah Winfrey. If you’re an American citizen, you live in a country where anyone can become richest of the rich starting with nothing but a personality. Most folks have more to work with than that.
Do yourself a favor. Don’t worry about what other people have. Don’t worry about whether other people are rich or not. Don’t worry about what other people are or are not willing to do with THEIR property. Don’t worry about what THEY need. None of that is any of your business. Really.
If YOU believe so strongly that you should devote your efforts to supporting others, and providing a “safety net” for others, then by all means make it your life’s work. We’ll even give you a medal. But spare the world your pseudo-altruistic, meaningless nonsense about “equitable society” and “fair share”.
When 9 million citizens are forced to shoulder 60% of the income tax burden for a nation of over 300M, plus illegals, that is neither “equitable” nor “fair”. Not by any definition you can fantasize. That’s the situation we have now. It got worse, not better, after the 2001 tax cuts. It will get much, much worse if BHO and his marxist-socialist, “spread the wealth around” ilk have their way.
This has absolutely nothing to do with a “quaking” upper class or generational wealth transfer (your kidding with that B.S., right?). It has everything to do with the fact that Congress needs a source for its largess. The professional political class has realized that they can purchase endless votes by demonizing, and then convincing the majority to let them squeeze that source.
Solution? Simple: remove the source.
Apr 8, 2009 - 12:41 pm 194. gcblues:what? you just getting the memo?
i closed my company and left the USA at the age of 47. i work more in “retirement”. however now, out of the usa. all my employees in 2 foreign countries are illegal, the way it should be. the government with its ignorant labor and immigration laws can go to hell. i get busted, fine, i pay and leave to another country. there is no free country in the world. saying the usa is the most free is pure ignorance, that changed long ago. ayn rand was correct, the only true patriotism is the patriotism you have for you. your own mind. you own reason. no nationalistic, altruistic baloney. if the world were all faithful to no one but themselves, we would have a self sustaining system.
Apr 8, 2009 - 12:44 pm 195. KBurke:as it is, you have all turned the usa into a dung hole. it was not just the loony left, oh no no no, the loony right has it’s share of fascist animal farmers as well. a pox on anyone thinking people need new laws. more laws. “better laws”. yer all sickos. ciao ciao ciao.
Thank you for this article. My husband and I, who are not rich, operate a business that used to have 35 employees. We now have 29 employees as a result of the financial stresses we have experienced over the last several months. We are not only looking at paying more in federal taxes, but also in state and local taxes. These additional costs may force us out of business. As my husband always says, “We will land on our feet.” -But what about those 29 others?, Whose dreams, goals, plans, rent and mortgages depend on our continuing to do business?
Apr 8, 2009 - 1:01 pm 196. The Historian:BUILDING DEBT THAT CANNOT BE PAID BACK
The Dems are destroying America’s market place.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/impossible-unsustainable-debt.html
Apr 8, 2009 - 1:03 pm 197. view from afar:Bee 172, um what? It isn’t about protecting the rich, it’s about is anyone else ever going to get to be rich? You’re right, here in Europe, the aready rich stay rich, albeit less rich than they could be, and they hide an awful lot of their riches. However, the working poor and the middle class can not grow their wealth, there is too many taxes and other disincentives to work too hard to create anything. If you do create any new wealth, it is taken away from you because obviously you have stolen more than your allotted fair share. I actually live in France, and work hard for very little return, but stuck in the system, you keep going. My husband is a farmer, we can’t leave here for the US, unless we give up his dream of farming. But it is a dream with a lot cost, but the choice is made…but you have absolutely no clue. Please re-read the article, and then read Steven j’s comment about Paris Hilton….
Apr 8, 2009 - 1:22 pm 198. view from afar:oops the already rich…
Apr 8, 2009 - 1:32 pm 199. svinrod:then you may read goy 191 right before mine(sorry I got angry and posted, before I finished reading)
The socialists must create a shibboleth to frighten the population into compliance. Our current leaders are using the rich the same way the National-Socialists used the jews in the 30’s. I wonder when the formerly “Rich” shall be required to wear a gold dollar sign sewn on to their clothing so that the lumpen shall know whom to shun?
Svin
Apr 8, 2009 - 2:30 pm 200. A message to the rich :: Dr. Helen Smith:[...] Whittle has a brilliant piece up at PJM: A message to the rich. I agree with every [...]
Apr 8, 2009 - 3:50 pm 201. The Daily Elitist:Seriously? Wow. Yeah, those rich people are so oppressed, what with their preferential cap gains and dividends tax rates; their tax havens and offshore accounts; their bailouts and backstops; their cheap credit to fund investment courtesy the Fed, but paid for by siphoning off income from people who actually work for a living; their relentless corruption and rigging of the political system; their parasitic hedge funds which produce nothing but are still allowed to go on stealing and manipulating financial markets unimpeded; the countless government subsidies to corporations; their usurious credit card companies and other loansharking enterprises; their ability to form corporate “persons” to skirt legal liabilities; their bonuses for incompetence; their golden parachutes for bankrupting firms; their overseas wars of imperialism; and the ability globalism gives them to take advantage of past public investments and preferential tax rates in certain markets, and when those are fully depreciated, take their capital and leave – also known as “dine and dash.”
Yeah, real bad they have it. Please. I sometimes wonder how this particular breed of idiot, like the author of this mind-numbing exercise in idolization of the wealthy, don’t all collapse into a singularity of idolatry and self-loathing under the weight of their own stupidity.
Ever since Ronald Ray-gun sold us out to the highest bidder, the ultra-wealthy have bled this country dry, taking every bit of capital they could steal in order to send it overseas in order to exploit third-world slave labor. They’ve collapsed the financial system by generating literally quadrillions of dollars in fictitious securities and credit default swaps. They’ve bought, paid for, sold and resold the politicians, such that the government – even with massive majorities of “liberal” Democrats in Congress and in control of the White House – is now solely by, for, and of Wall Street, corporations, and the “investor” class. And now, the idle holders of fictional capital have orchestrated a successful coup in the TARP giveaways to the banks, attempting to enslave the working classes in order subsidize their own spectacular failures.
So please, spare me the nonsensical “Atlas Shrugged” Ayn Rand-style tirade – the rich don’t possess even a tenth of the skill you think they do. And I should know, I come from quite a wealthy family. After wrecking this economy and bankrupting this country, If “Atlas” wants to “shrug,” I’d say have at it, hoss! And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out! If the flaming hulk they’ve left is the best Atlas can, I’d just say this: dragging the world along the ground like that all day has got to be tiring, so why don’t you put ‘er down, and let the competent people take over for a while, eh?
Or maybe you’re right, and we just can’t live without those righteous hedge fund managers, private equity vultures, oil company executives, investment bankers, and Fortune 500 CEOs/thieves. Yeah, that’s it… Sure…
Apr 8, 2009 - 4:29 pm 202. The Daily Elitist:Also, reading some of the comments here, I can’t help but chuckle at their grossly distorted view of history, especially American history. Apparently, these fools think the US was some laissez-faire utopia or something prior to that evil FDR being voted in by the uncouth masses (50% of whom were, all of a sudden, just too lazy to work, or so the story goes). Allow me to correct that delusion.
For most of the history of the United States, beginning with Alexander Hamilton’s appointment as the first Treasury Secretary, America followed what would today be considered a center-left program of economic planning, very rightfully known as “The American System.” Hamilton was one of the greatest minds America has ever produced, and he realized full well the limitations of unregulated markets and unrestrained speculation. Thus, his American System was one of:
• High tariffs and trade protectionism, in order to achieve industrial independence from the British Empire;
• A national bank and sovereign credit system, so as to provide credit to encourage productive enterprise and discourage unproductive financial speculation;
• Large-scale, multi-generational, capital-intensive infrastructure development projects to allow citizens to better realize their creative potential.
Of course, America’s own home-grown economic system would probably be derided as “socialism” by present-day conservatives. We abandoned the American System around WWI, and guess what? We got a huge asset bubble which burst in 1929; neglected infrastructure and public-sector investment to fund low taxes; and eliminated support to productive enterprise, instead creating the Fed and funneling credit through Wall Street gamblers. The result, predictably, was a massive blowout of the economy and a Great Depression.
That’s pretty much exactly the same story we have today, just that the neglect is much worse, the competition more intense, and the debt-bubble much bigger. Thus, I’d expect that the ongoing depression will be much worse as well… Oh well, at least the rich will be fine, which is all that really matters, right?
Apr 8, 2009 - 4:56 pm 203. WhyamInotsurprised?:Mr. AF, aka “Airfoil,” Shake! I guess I did misunderstand. On re-reading your post the first part was inconsistent with the last. But your other posts are more clearly stated. So I would just recommend you review your posts before submitting if “misunderstanding” has been a problem in the past. I think you will agree that your comments about Mr. Whittle sending his money and not the government leave one with a different conclusion that what you intended. But that being said, I agree with your earlier post that it is time the silent majority stop being silent. BHO is such an egomaniac, I think it won’t take much to move him into being a megalomaniacal danger to the world. We will see how he “punishes” N. Korea. Keep the faith. We still live in the BEST country in the world.
Apr 8, 2009 - 5:29 pm 204. zbignu:From Wheel-less Whittle to Wheels-up Whittle….inspirational story. Thanks
Apr 8, 2009 - 5:42 pm 205. Dana:Aaaahhhh!….”Wheels-up Whittle”…..I love it!
Apr 8, 2009 - 8:23 pm 206. xpd:BEAUTIFUL!!
Definitely adding Bill to my favorites. Great article. BTW, forget coming to Australia. Kevin Rudd our prime minister is as big an idiot as is Obama. These two guys are just like a giant washing machine, spin, spin, spin! Arghhhh…..
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
These nations have progressed through this sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to ________________?;
from ____________________ to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage.
Fill in the blanks (the word was selfishness, but I don’t think people with abundance are selfish)
Economic Freedom always leads to Prosperity, and it is after Prosperity is achieved, that politicians begin the propaganda of class envy, Democracy, and the Redistribution of Wealth.
Capitalism is not perfect but it is by far the best engine of prosperity. At heart, it is ordinary human freedom played out in the economic sphere.
Obama and Rudd are evil, evil, evil.
Apr 8, 2009 - 8:33 pm 207. xpd:Check out my favorite blog in Australia
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/
Apr 8, 2009 - 8:37 pm 208. Brenda Giguere:Our current situation has inspired many strong pieces of writing, but what you’ve shared here is stunning in its eloquence, the best of the best. Everyone I know is going to get a copy. Thank you.
Apr 8, 2009 - 8:49 pm 209. Katherine:Me,
Apr 8, 2009 - 8:58 pm 210. Stephen J.:I actually love Australia. I was considering to retire there – when I still was The Rich.
But you guys have low wages (I have some Ozzie friends and they had run away to Europe to make any money!), gun controls and now you got this Rudd fellow. How is that better than Obama’s America?
Elitist,
You make some interesting points, but I can’t help but feel that you’ve missed Bill’s.
The fundamental points of Bill’s original article is twofold:
1) That the government, simply by reducing what people in certain tax brackets can claim in tax breaks for charity, has essentially asserted – and Joel Berg applauds them specifically for this – that the State is better able, and more entitled, to decide how to allocate your internal social contribution than you are. Which amounts to nothing more or less than the assertion of the State’s primacy over the individual when it comes to disposition of private economic resources, enacted in 2% tax increases and eliminated deductions at a time. However brilliant Alexander Hamilton was, I see nothing in your list of his accomplishments that indicates he advocated that degree of state economic control.
2) That this assertion of control is driven not by a competent assessment of the problems and a desire to craft an effective and temporary state-controlled solution to them, but by a fundamental pathology on the part of those most fervently agitating for it: the conviction that the half of the country which does not pay taxes is *entitled* to demand, *without foreseeable halt or upper limit*, more and more financial support from the half of the country which does, in the belief that the best solution for economic dependency is not to break it but to sustain it — and in the irrational conviction that the tax-paying half of the country is *all* corrupt and deserving to be fleeced, simply because a comparative few, yes, a *few* at absolute best, are that corrupt.
(As if the right solution to dealing with a few sheep so fat that their wool was no longer worth their feed was to kill *all* the sheep above the flock’s midpoint of weight, and feed their meat to the scrawnier half of the flock.)
You are right that there was more State control of the American economy in the past than many realize, and you are right that much of the current situation did result from a few very wealthy people making very bad decisions who have exploited every legal (and some illegal) loopholes to minimize their tax contributions. The fact remains: The richest ten percent of the country (and 10% of the US amounts to *30 million people*) pay *60%* of the total tax burden. Only a few of those 30 million are the incompetent ultrawealthy you denounce; the remainder are the truly productive wealth engines of American society.
Bill calls attention to a compelling warning sign: While Obama’s administration, at least partially in honest good intention, may be enacting tax policy in an attempt to punish and prevent those ultrawealthy, the approach taken is dangerously close to something that would permanently yoke the dependent to the productive in an unhealthy and ultimately mutually destructive cycle – as if trying to cure a tumour using a new chemotherapy that turned out to be addictive, and in the long run just as fatal.
As I’ve said, the problem is that when the opposing sides talk about “The Rich”, they mean two different things. What they need to recognize is that both sides’ definitions are valid. But that requires a fundamental honesty of discourse that, in all fairness, I see one side much less willing to aspire or adhere to than the other.
Apr 8, 2009 - 9:28 pm 211. expat:Doesn’t matter where you go, the IRS will find you. No matter where you live or earn your money, Uncle Sam still thinks he has a claim on your income.
Apr 8, 2009 - 11:33 pm 212. Bob K.:If it does happen, and the “rich” bail, the bar will continuously be lowered. I fear this country is going to have to lose it all before it turns around.
I work for a relatively small manufacturing firm. As one travels the halls from one end of the company to the other, through various layers of owners, management, to the hourly workers (of whom a couple to a few are always absent on a work day)it is like traveling through different worlds. There are people working who DO NOT want to be working. They want to be given everything, and given more today than yesterday.
Apr 9, 2009 - 1:35 am 213. Obloodyhell:> I am curiously enough not filled with rage that someone lives in such a palace. I am, in fact, uplifted and motivated to live in such a place myself. Perhaps I shall, someday.
The capitalist vs. the communist, Bill.
The communist looks at that and says, “NO man should have so much!”
The capitalist looks at that and says “ALL men should have so much!”
Apr 9, 2009 - 2:21 am 214. kg2v:Amen – Good to reach one’s goal, isn’t it? I’ve reset my goals, as some I’ve reached, and others, I know I can never reach (I’ll never be a private pilot due to medicals, but I’ve flown with an instructor, just can’t solo)
Apr 9, 2009 - 3:56 am 215. Scott:Dynamite piece. I pray that the Rich *don’t* leave. We need them too much.
Apr 9, 2009 - 4:37 am 216. Fritz:Masterful. Worth the wait (did it run simultaneously elsewhere?). Please give us more … more often. Our Country needs it. Thank you, Bill.
Fritz
PS I am not the same Fritz as Bill’s friend (though I think I’d like to be his friend).
Apr 9, 2009 - 4:43 am 217. Topics about Actors » Archive » Rich People: Just Leave America:[...] Sharing Baba put an intriguing blog post on Rich People: Just Leave AmericaHere’s a quick excerpt208 Comments… [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 5:43 am 218. Topics about Economy » Archive » Rich People: Just Leave America:[...] Editorials from Hell’s leading daily newspaper added an interesting post today on Rich People: Just Leave AmericaHere’s a small readingMany Americans are at least moving from expensive states like California to cheaper states like Florida and Texas. [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 5:43 am 219. Topics about Peace » Archive » Rich People: Just Leave America:[...] Headlines You Should Know! created an interesting post today on Rich People: Just Leave AmericaHere’s a short outline208 Comments… [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 5:49 am 220. goy:- The richest ten percent of the country (and 10% of the US amounts to *30 million people*) pay *60%* of the total tax burden.
Stephen, it’s even worse than you realize. 60% of the U.S. income tax burden is actually shouldered by about 9 million Americans.
Responsibility for the total tax burden is a bit difficult to assign, since the total is a composite of sales tax, State and local tax, excise tax, corporate income tax and personal income tax. But it’s well-known (or trivially easy to discover) that over 60% of the total income tax burden is shouldered by about 3% of the country’s population (i.e., ~5% of the nation’s ~180M tax filers). This is going by 2006 numbers. In 2006 around 5% of the 180M+ who filed paid over 60% of all the income taxes paid.
Based on 2006 and the preceding 5 years – notably, those immediately following the 2001 tax cuts – the trend at that time was for a larger portion of the total income tax burden being extracted from that group each year. This is what was obliviously referred to by some as “tax cuts for the rich”.
Even more interesting, and supporting your point, about half of those 180M+ who filed paid no income tax at all, or had a “negative” tax liability; that is, they received a “tax credit” (read: taxypayer-funded welfare check) in the spirit of “spreading the wealth around”. In that sense Elitist is absolutely right – BHO and Congress are just amplifying the suicidal policies we already have in place. And they’re using populist rage directed against The Rich (in concert with Goebbels-quality propaganda provided by the entrenched media) to garner support for it.
Given BHO’s background (that part which has been revealed) and Congress’ behavior to date, it’s impossible to ascribe any genuinely altruistic motives to their actions. They are merely squeezing the portion of the citizenry – notably, an electoral minority – whom they can rob with impunity to distribute that wealth to those in the demographic who support them.
That demographic is growing. The portion of U.S. tax filers who pay no income tax (or who get a check), plus those who have no income and are completely dependent upon the taxpayer, plus those government employees whose income is contributed by the taxpayer, are now a firm majority. We reached that tipping point some time ago, and we’re reaping the rewards in the form of a breakneck slide into socialism as a result.
In the end, this isn’t about having sympathy for The Rich, as Elitist ham-handedly pretends with glib, straw-man aplomb and boatloads of irrelevant thesis. This is the peacetime equivalent of attacking the enemy’s supply lines; that is, removing the source of power that is feeding the corrupt and wholly unaccountable professional political class that has infested our government.
Apr 9, 2009 - 5:54 am 221. Topics about Recycle » Rich People: Just Leave America:[...] AllYearbooks Blog – Yearbook printing in the UK placed an interesting blog post on Rich People: Just Leave AmericaHere’s a brief overview208 Comments… [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 6:07 am 222. Topics about Restaurants » Rich People: Just Leave America:[...] Jamie and Jessica Dunning added an interesting post on Rich People: Just Leave AmericaHere’s a small excerptThe best restaurants are all in these ill-governed states. The nicest bookstores are all there. (This is one thing I really miss in Florida). [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 6:10 am 223. Topics about Education » Rich People: Just Leave America:[...] blabstr.com added an interesting post today on Rich People: Just Leave AmericaHere’s a small reading208 Comments… [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 6:12 am 224. rick:Just when I thought all was lost, i find this post. thank you.
Apr 9, 2009 - 6:20 am 225. Topics about Crimes » Rich People: Just Leave America:[...] womensgrid put an intriguing blog post on Rich People: Just Leave AmericaHere’s a quick excerpt208 Comments… [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 6:29 am 226. SDC:Yeah whatever. Like anybody’s going to do this. One step outside the bubble and your rich friends will s*** their pants, like some rich douchebag wheeling through Reykjavik horrified by the graffiti there. They’re gonna be running up and down the beach: ‘who needs me to create some CDOs? I’m really good at that.’
Apr 9, 2009 - 6:42 am 227. Topics about Alcohol » Archive » Rich People: Just Leave America:[...] Collegehookerboy’s Hot and Disturbing Weblog added an interesting post on Rich People: Just Leave AmericaHere’s a small excerpt208 Comments… [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 6:52 am 228. Topics about Planet » Archive » Rich People: Just Leave America:[...] S-Proprietor.com put an intriguing blog post on Rich People: Just Leave AmericaHere’s a quick excerptWho else is left? There is no Galt’s Gulch anywhere on this entire planet. USA was and still is the best and last hope of the free men. [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 7:19 am 229. Larry R:Brilliant.
Apr 9, 2009 - 8:01 am 230. Joe Munculus:Let’s not forget the Bush administration helped usher in the current administration’s policy. If the Hawks and W had done a better job at taking care of the system then the current admin would have a lot less reason to do what they are doing.
Apr 9, 2009 - 8:51 am 231. Not A Good Sign In A Democratic Country « Tai-Chi Policy:[...] Not A Good Sign In A Democratic Country April 9, 2009 Posted by taoist in Politics. Tags: Capitalism, Democracy, Socialism, Wealth Envy trackback A third of the population thinks socialism is a good idea, and only a third think it’s a bad idea. Of course you might have been able to tell that from recent elections, as well. Wealthy people and enterpreneurs should just do us all a favor and leave now until the fever breaks. [...]
Apr 9, 2009 - 9:08 am 232. jo ann:Even if the previous admin and former Republican controlled congress hadn’t spent like drunken sailors (sorry, sailors) the One would still be finding ways to make this the USSA. It would just have taken him longer.
Apr 9, 2009 - 12:37 pm 233. airfoil:Don’t forget, though, that Bush and McCain did make attempts to get Congress to rein in Freddie and Fannie, part of the cause of the current financial debacle.
Personally, I am wondering which states will be the 1st to break away from our former republic. I want to buy property there now, to be ready.
Hmm. This is a democratic country only to the degree that the People are intended to rule in the constraints of a Republic. We elect representatives for a term to act as agents in our best interest. If the Founders had even sniffed that a minority would Rule, merely by spending more money or yelling louder, they would have written different rules. Neither should policy be enacted by “popular and immediate assent”. The Fathers feared rule by mob.
King George III was a tyrant, but an honest one. The taxes he took weren’t intended to benefit those taxed, no sham was spoken to fool the People, in contradiction to the state of the State these days. To have taxation without representation was unacceptable to the Founders and the rebels. To have money taken under false pretenses by those whom we elect to Represent us is, What? Better?
AF
Apr 9, 2009 - 1:23 pm 234. Peter:If a contribution isn’t voluntary then it’s simply a tax.
I’m in favor of higher taxes for the rich (sorry), but what they have after taxes is their money.
Peter
Apr 9, 2009 - 1:45 pm 235. Mike Blackadder:OurBroker.com
Bill, I always enjoy your writing and look forward to your posts. Thanks for sharing your story.
#202: The Daily Elitist: Interesting take on history. You forgot to mention the effective tax rate at the time though. I believe there were politicians being tarred and feathered when rates reached the astronomical heights of about 2%.
Somehow that fits your definition of being more left-of-center than where we are today. Honestly, where do you come up with this stuff?
Apr 9, 2009 - 4:01 pm 236. myth buster:xpd, people with abundance are not necessarily selfish; neither can one call the poor selfless simply because they lack. Nevertheless, the tendency of man is to focus on his abundance to the neglect of the God who blessed him with such abundance. Abundance is not evil, but greed and envy are, as are the sick forms of entertainment one is inclined to devise when one has lots of time on his hands and an ill formed conscience.
Apr 9, 2009 - 6:40 pm 237. The Daily Elitist:Stephen J writes:
That the government, simply by reducing what people in certain tax brackets can claim in tax breaks for charity, has essentially asserted – and Joel Berg applauds them specifically for this – that the State is better able, and more entitled, to decide how to allocate your internal social contribution than you are.
Well, that and the fact that we’re now spending trillions to bail out those same people. In my view, Obama’s tax policy is a disgrace – the ruling class should be made to pay for every dime of Treasury’s welfare-for-the-wealthy, as well as their wars and their overseas empire.
And yes, I think it’s perfectly legitimate that “charitable” donations are taxed. I’m quite familiar with this “charity,” which is not really charity at all, but the tax-free financing of personal fiefdoms for the ultra-rich, in order that they may grow their spheres of economic and political influence.
Which amounts to nothing more or less than the assertion of the State’s primacy over the individual when it comes to disposition of private economic resources, enacted in 2% tax increases and eliminated deductions at a time.
If you’re going to insist on asserting black-and-white distinctions between “individual liberty” and “state compulsion,” I don’t think there’s really much we have to discuss, as the libertarian right’s insistence upon such cut-and-dry distinctions has no basis in reality whatever.
However brilliant Alexander Hamilton was, I see nothing in your list of his accomplishments that indicates he advocated that degree of state economic control.
Again, it’s not a direct comparison. Hamilton supported a policy of strict trade protectionism – if we could have that back, I’d happily compromise on the taxation of charitable contributions.
2) That this assertion of control is driven not by a competent assessment of the problems and a desire to craft an effective and temporary state-controlled solution to them, but by a fundamental pathology on the part of those most fervently agitating for it: the conviction that the half of the country which does not pay taxes is *entitled* to demand, *without foreseeable halt or upper limit*, more and more financial support from the half of the country which does, in the belief that the best solution for economic dependency is not to break it but to sustain it — and in the irrational conviction that the tax-paying half of the country is *all* corrupt and deserving to be fleeced, simply because a comparative few, yes, a *few* at absolute best, are that corrupt.
First off, as I mentioned in a previous post, in practice, our tax code is very good for the wealthy indeed. I know for a fact that Warren Buffett pays only 17% of his income to federal government – for me, it’s like 28-30%. So yes, I don’t have any problem with making the rich pay a higher percentage of their income not only nominally, but practically. They enjoy great privilege in terms of earning capability, as well as in terms of political and social power, and they should have to pay a higher share for those benefits.
As far as policy goes, the New Deal/post-WWII period was about right. During this time, while nominal tax rates on the greatest earners were between 71% and 91%, various sorts of credits and deductions were given to those who used their talents or financial resources to improve the general welfare and invest in productive enterprise, such that many had to pay no tax at all. While I think everyone over the poverty line should have to pay some percentage of their income in tax, that was a pretty fair – and successful – way to do it.
(As if the right solution to dealing with a few sheep so fat that their wool was no longer worth their feed was to kill *all* the sheep above the flock’s midpoint of weight, and feed their meat to the scrawnier half of the flock.)
Dubious premise. Wealth does not flow down from the elite you worship, but rather, from the labor of workers and the creativity of the human mind. To quote President Lincoln: “Capital is only the fruit of labor… Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
You are right that there was more State control of the American economy in the past than many realize, and you are right that much of the current situation did result from a few very wealthy people making very bad decisions who have exploited every legal (and some illegal) loopholes to minimize their tax contributions. The fact remains: The richest ten percent of the country (and 10% of the US amounts to *30 million people*) pay *60%* of the total tax burden. Only a few of those 30 million are the incompetent ultrawealthy you denounce; the remainder are the truly productive wealth engines of American society.
This isn’t directed at you in particular, but the claim that a small percentage of the wealthy pay a large share of the income tax is dishonest and highly misleading. The reason this is so is because they’ve pocketed all of the gains in economic output for three decades now for themselves. And after such rank abuse of their social position, they have the gall to complain that they must pay taxes on their ill-gotten income?! Please.
Now, it is certainly true that many wealthy people possess great talents. However, in my opinion, the question of national interest is: should we be focused on enhancing the productivity and leveraging the creativity of the disadvantaged, or on making it easier for those already possessing great advantages to profit? I think history and experience renders a clear verdict in favor of the former. In the US, we followed that course from 1933 to the late 1960’s, and we saw the greatest rise in productivity and living standards in all history. During the 1970’s, we slowly transitioned to the latter paradigm, a transition that became very rapid in 1981. Since then, we’ve seen a long-running, secular decline in real/physical productivity (papered over, for a while, by way of financial speculation and overseas imperialism), a huge concentration of wealth, and steady moral and social degeneration.
Bill calls attention to a compelling warning sign: While Obama’s administration, at least partially in honest good intention, may be enacting tax policy in an attempt to punish and prevent those ultrawealthy, the approach taken is dangerously close to something that would permanently yoke the dependent to the productive in an unhealthy and ultimately mutually destructive cycle – as if trying to cure a tumour using a new chemotherapy that turned out to be addictive, and in the long run just as fatal.
You’ve got that the wrong way around. The unproductive – the usurers and financial parasites, the overpaid incompetents, and the corporate oligarchs – now control the system. The productive are treated with scorn and contempt; told that they must simply accept a continually dropping standard of living so that the unproductive might enjoy the thrill of seeing the balance on their brokerage statements increase a few more percentage points.
Apr 9, 2009 - 7:11 pm 238. The Daily Elitist:Obloodyhell writes:
“The capitalist vs. the communist, Bill.
The communist looks at that and says, ‘NO man should have so much!’
The capitalist looks at that and says ‘ALL men should have so much!’”
At which point, the centrists and social democrats look at both of them and shake their heads in disbelief that supposedly serious people would bother wasting their time debating such asinine false antitheses.
Apr 9, 2009 - 7:18 pm 239. The Daily Elitist:Bob K. Fascist writes:
I work for a relatively small manufacturing firm. As one travels the halls from one end of the company to the other, through various layers of owners, management, to the hourly workers (of whom a couple to a few are always absent on a work day) it is like traveling through different worlds.
Hahaha… So, apparently, “you get what you pay for” applies only to the well-to-do, eh? Ah yes, the lovely world of the anti-social, anti-humanist, elitist right – the place where the wealthy rarely work at all because they’re paid too little, while the poor don’t work hard enough because they’re paid too much.
There are people working who DO NOT want to be working. They want to be given everything, and given more today than yesterday.
I think everyone wants more today than yesterday, don’t they? In any case, maybe it’s the management’s fault that the employees at your company aren’t motivated – ever consider that? I mean, from your tirade, I can tell you don’t think much of the peasantry, so why would you blame them for the unmotivated atmosphere? They’re obviously incapable of managing their economic activity without wise and benevolent overlords looking over them, so what makes you think they’re responsible for the atmosphere of the workplace? Put another way, in a hierarchical society or organization, who else is to blame for such an entity’s poor performance other than those at the top controlling the rest? It’s absurd.
I just love it, really – the economic elite and their apologists engage in constant finger-wagging about “personal responsibility,” yet they’re completely, utterly incapable of taking any responsibility for their own performance. It’s not management’s incompetence and their failure to produce innovative, efficient, high-quality products which has caused GM to fail, it’s the UAW and their damn demands for decent wages and benefits! It’s not the banksters’ fault that their fraudulent, usurious financial system is coming apart at the seams, it’s those darn irresponsible consumers and their desire to buy nice houses! Truly contemptible.
I swear, it’s only a matter of time before you and your ilk declare your support for outright slavery once again. In terms of the profitability of the elite, that is the most “efficient” form of labor organization, after all – as well as the logical end of the diseased mindset which holds the working classes in perpetual contempt.
Apr 9, 2009 - 7:40 pm 240. The Daily Elitist:airfoil writes:
“Hmm. This is a democratic country only to the degree that the People are intended to rule in the constraints of a Republic. We elect representatives for a term to act as agents in our best interest. If the Founders had even sniffed that a minority would Rule, merely by spending more money or yelling louder, they would have written different rules. Neither should policy be enacted by “popular and immediate assent”. The Fathers feared rule by mob.
King George III was a tyrant, but an honest one. The taxes he took weren’t intended to benefit those taxed, no sham was spoken to fool the People, in contradiction to the state of the State these days. To have taxation without representation was unacceptable to the Founders and the rebels. To have money taken under false pretenses by those whom we elect to Represent us is, What? Better?”
In other words, you think you’re entitled to have views codified, irregardless of whether or not the rest of the represented disagree.
I have to wonder though – what are you suggesting instead? An animal farm-type scenario where those with money are more equal in terms of representation than those without? I mean, anyone who’s ever worked in the Beltway knows full well that that’s already what we have, but presumably, you want to see a government which is even more heavily biased towards the interests of the wealthy, right? Perhaps something along the lines of the Estate System of pre-revolution France would be more to your liking? OK, but when you get your head cut off, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Apr 9, 2009 - 7:58 pm 241. The Daily Elitist:Mike Blackadder writes:
“#202: The Daily Elitist: Interesting take on history. You forgot to mention the effective tax rate at the time though. I believe there were politicians being tarred and feathered when rates reached the astronomical heights of about 2%.”
I believe the cry of the American Revolutionaries was “No Taxation Without Representation” – it seems you conveniently left off the last bit. It was also a matter of taxation versus benefits; the rebels paid dearly in the French and Indian War, so they were none too keen on being taxed by an overseas monarch while getting nothing in return. You might think you get no benefit from the government – and indeed, there are many, many possible legitimate grievances to have with it – but to say you don’t benefit at all from the taxes you pay is either ignorant or delusional.
Somehow that fits your definition of being more left-of-center than where we are today. Honestly, where do you come up with this stuff?
Well, for one thing, even the idea of an industrial policy or economic plan is considered to be “far-left wing” by the modern American right.
Apr 9, 2009 - 8:07 pm 242. David S:@171. Roy Mustang:
Indeed I do, whenever my finances allow.
Alternatively, you could show some civility, think about the situation logically, and come to the same conclusion that 70% of Americans have – the rich need to pay more. It’s not about anybody’s filthy hands – it’s about paying your share.
Using profanity and calling me names is no way to make an argument, by the way.
Peace.
DS
Apr 9, 2009 - 8:08 pm 243. Paul -Indiana:Are you still glad that you voted for Obama?
Apr 10, 2009 - 4:14 am 244. bolivar:Wonderful piece Mr Whittle. You can put into words what I am thinking and for that I am truly grateful. My wife and I just got back from a 2 week cruise that stopped of all places in Grand Cayman. You may be interested to know that workers that come there actually must be vetted and they can only remain 7 years after which they must go where they came from. We never did check into moving and taking citizenship but, of all the places my wife and I have visited we liked the Caymans the best. We love the people, the climate and the fact that they respect the Capitalistic system – you earn it you keep it.
Atlas Shrugged indeed – this is the whole nut of this post. Ayn Rand had some good ideas and even though she was overly verbose the point came through. We are in deep kimchee and no amount of blather or bitching will change it. The mere fact that %50 of the populace pay no (or virtually no) tax and are sucking the teat of the remaining %50 is the slippery slope that has been alluded to. Take the money and run – as fast as you can because the United States we knew and loved is not here anymore.
Apr 10, 2009 - 5:11 am 245. airfoil:Daily Elitist. From a strict paraphrase of the foundation of governance you presume an enormous amount. I favor more elites, more self-serving authority? Absolutely not. I wish a stronger and more engaged populace? NO. One vote is enough for each. A pure Democracy is a nightmare, rule by Mob, or Internet would be chaos. Continuing the way that DC is run now equally disturbing. The Founders presumed an intelligent, moral, and popularly elected Congress, not the electeds we have today. Incumbency has become a chronic infection, yet the electorate sends the weasels back at 99% ?? You may think the country is run as the Founders intended as written in their Constitution, and you’re entitled to that thought. I couldn’t possibly take stronger exception.
(Irregardless is not a word).
AF
Apr 10, 2009 - 5:46 am 246. Marie Claude:#197, View from afar,
I am surprised that your husband can’t get the PAC subventions, as our european neighbours pretend that the french farming get a lot of them LMAO
Apr 10, 2009 - 5:55 am 247. Mike Blackadder:Daily Elitist: “…but to say you don’t benefit at all from the taxes you pay is either ignorant or delusional.”
Right, as if I said anything like that. Maybe you have a reading comprehension problem which would explain your interpretation of American history. Many conservatives would opt for a reduction in the size of government in most areas on the premise that citizens can spend their own money more effectively than government, and on the premise that in a free country people have a right to their own property to do with as they wish.
David S: “It’s not about anybody’s filthy hands – it’s about paying your share.”
I think that you should contemplate the point that Mr. Whittle is making. Many American citizens pay no federal tax, yet they receive benefits. Is it not hypocritical to vilify the small percentage of Americans who actually pay for the majority of those benefits? The federal government would only exist at 30% of its present influence if you were to lose that 10%. And that’s only in actual tax dollars, it ignores the essential role that wealthy industrious risk-takers play in a productive economy.
Apr 10, 2009 - 6:09 am 248. airfoil:Their is a Rhinoceros in the Room. No one yet has pointed it out or remarked about it. We have problems? Oh my. It’s the Democrats. No, it’s the Republicans. No, it’s…. At some indefinite point in our past we became a Nation less focused on work, community, and each other, and more about.. Government. When did it become OK, even desirable and respectable to be a Full Time POLITICIAN??
Government positions used to be part-time jobs. Recently our county went from part-time Supervisors to full-time, full pay Board. In the last 15 years since that decision, County government has doubled in size, and it is now the largest employer with the biggest budget in one of the largest areas of California.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that government justifies its own existence. For me, it is merely a way to disguise high taxes, hiring your buddies, and getting out of work. Create a “Commission”, a “Board”, a “Committee”?
Naturally, that’s the ticket. Imagine if the Big Three Auto Companies (so far) combined all their employees and administration yet only produced the cars Ford had been making. Now three people make the same product one had made before. Add to that the “decision-making” created by three times the number of egoistic management, and the consequent deterioration in quality and production. Now you have an example of what I mean. Government “Service”?
Poor Service? “We need more people and a bigger budget”
Let that bubble for a few decades and we end up with what we have, a system that rewards incompetence, cronyism, and the cleverest criminals, eg, DC.
Apr 10, 2009 - 6:13 am 249. Get out while you can! « Gulch Times:[...] out while you can! Jump to Comments Bill Whittle has an entertaining (but also demoralizing) message for the rich of our nation: Get out!
Apr 10, 2009 - 9:03 am 250. goy:- … it’s about paying your share.
Heh. And there it is: The ultimate revelation of rotting bullshit at the core. The Big Lie. Discredited numerous times over the past 100+ years.
Everywhere lately, it seems, we’re reading where some cock-sure fool (stoned on a political ‘victory’ supplied by the Fifth Column in the entrenched media) has written some version of The Big Lie: “…it’s about paying your share.” Missing is any evidence of the moral maturity necessary to understand what that share ought to be. Or why. Or what the cost of the decision will be to our Republic if the moral adolescents are the ones who are allowed to make it.
Who decides what one’s “share” is to be? You? The mob? Marx? Who?
Who gets to define “his gifts”? Who gets to define “his need”? Hmmm??
The questions have no answers.
In a Constitutional Republic such as ours – at least until that Constitution is completely destroyed – questions like these are answered through representative government, expressing the will of the majority. But that will is not absolute; the effects of that will must be tempered so as not to unduly disenfranchise the minority.
Or at least it’s supposed to be tempered. Wealth is the exception.
Increasingly, questions like these comprise the one case where the minority’s interests are ignored by those who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Why? Because that minority had the temerity to make themselves successful. Because they worked to make their outcome “better” than others’. Because they have wealth. Because their parents had wealth. Because they are The Rich… minority – the one minority that no longer enjoys Constitutional protections.
In a sane world, one would pay a “share” based on the burden they represent to the community.
In a sane world, all who enjoy the benefits of society would pay an equal share, irrespective of how successful they worked to become, irrespective of who their parents were or how “lucky” they were.
But we live in an increasingly insane world. It’s a world where one’s “share” – as demanded by overweening, unaccountable government and the masses it manipulates through demonization and vilification of the minority – has nothing to do with real equality. It has nothing to do with the burden one’s existence places on the rest of the community as a society. It has everything to do with the nurturing of class envy and the tactics of the Narodnik.
In our increasingly insane world, one’s “share” is nothing less than a penalty. It’s the penalty one must pay for one’s own success, and which is proportional to that success. As if the community, and the community alone, makes that success possible. In truth, both are necessary, but in our insane world, it is the successful individual who must be penalized – for the benefit of the community. This is insanity at a very fundamental level. So fundamental that it takes a life-altering experience like Bill’s, or mine, or many others’, to correct it.
This insanity is the essence of morally adolescent, socially suicidal “thinking” – “thinking” that has become so pervasive that it now threatens the viability of our society as a Republic and, if left unchecked, will lead it to ruin. Just like every failed fascist or communist regime in the 20th Century. Just like every fallen civilization in history, one way or another.
Marry this insanity to the realization by a greedy-for-power, wholly unaccountable, professional political class – that this insanity can be leveraged for its own ends – and the result is exactly what’s happening in our nation right now.
Apr 10, 2009 - 12:07 pm 251. airfoil:Ah, the Federal Reserve and the “Graduated Tax”. Makes me feel less stupid. Our ancestors got swindled as well. Class envy isn’t new, and it only works until the election. It punishes the Middle Class, the little guy, the Entrepreneur. ME. What about 15% of your gross? Sounds Fair. Unless totally disabled, work is available, even now, if you count serving others in need. The SCAM is convincing us we’re different, unequal; Lucky, Nasty, Bigoted, Saintly, Lazy, whatever it takes to get our eyes off the obvious. We are Americans. It is the Fed, the creature of malice, the insatiable rascal, the group that steals money from All of us, and repays the thieves with our money.
Apr 10, 2009 - 12:36 pm 252. David S:@250. goy:
- … it’s about paying your share.
Yes. Let’s see – how shall we determine that “share”? How about based on the monetary compensation they extract from society? Like a graduated income tax? That seems like it would represent the “burden they represent” rather well.
In a sane world, all who enjoy the benefits of society would enjoy an equal share of the benefits, and therefore pay an equal share. Totally makes sense to me. In our insane world where the benefits of society are distributed less than equally, it is no shock that those who enjoy more benefits contribute a larger proportion of tax revenue to the society.
The real greedy-for-power, wholly unaccountable, professional political class is the rich. That they have leveraged the tax code to their own benefit is also no shock. The grand experiment is over – dramatically lower taxes do not fix anything, they only magnify and amplify the dangers of market economics and government debt.
Our system is working as it is supposed to – it is self-correcting after an era of unprecedented debt and greed.
If you don’t appreciate what American citizenship costs, you are free to work for change, or to relocate. I’m frankly hopeful that we can get the tax rates back into a reasonably progressive rate structure in time to save our currency.
Peace.
DS
Apr 10, 2009 - 5:33 pm 253. goy:- … based on the monetary compensation they extract from society? … benefits of society are distributed …
“Extract”?? “Distributed”??? Once again, you reveal the rotting bullshit at the core of your chosen ideology.
This is your whole problem Zippy: you still think like a troll, not a citizen. First you assert that the draft and stop-loss are “slavery”. Now you claim wealth is “extracted”, not earned or created, and that the benefits of society are “distributed”, not bought and paid for with wealth taken from an ever-shrinking minority. You couldn’t be more wrong. And the reasons you’re so completely confused about all this are that you’ve never served your country in any capacity, and extracting – being a burden – is all you know.
You’ve never built a business; never supported a family (much less an extended family); never been responsible for 30 employees – and their families, and extended families – who depend on you to make their company a success so they can feed their kids; never taken on the risk of investing in your own business, much less the risk of mortgaging your home so that you could make payroll; never let a spouse wait patiently for a nicer house or a newer car so you could pursue a business you both thought was worthwhile; never worked eighty or one hundred hour weeks so you could see an idea through to fruition; never been held accountable by stockholders, venture capitalists or other investors who put up millions of dollars of their money so that you could see an idea come to life. None of it. You haven’t the foggiest idea what’s involved in creating wealth. By your own admission, you think wealth somehow magically appears in a hole in the ground called “society” and that it can only be “extracted”. And worse – you claim those who do the extracting somehow represent a burden. Insanity.
You’re still living in that morally adolescent stupor where you don’t understand the difference between the benefits of society and what a person earns on their own as an individual. And on top of that, you claim the lot of it, all lumped together, is “distributed”. That’s what makes you and the Borg collective who think like you so utterly pathetic, Zippy. You quite literally don’t have a clue what life is all about.
Here’s what you will eventually learn if you ever choose to wake up: the benefits of living in a society are limited to that which government has the explicit authority to guarantee. Period. Despite the fact that a minority pays far more than their fair, equal share to provide them, everyone shares in those benefits equally. All the rest – all the wealth you envy with such self-righteous, snotty indignation – is earned, inherited or received as a gift. None of that is a “benefit” of society. None of that is “distributed”. And none of that is subject to your use in pursuing insane notions of reducing debt by multiplying it.
Oh, there’s one other case where wealth is not earned, etc.: when it’s stolen. That’s true for the rich, corrupt politician and the rich, corrupt currency manipulator. It’s also true for the “poor” welfare queen – dripping with gold jewelry, surrounded by a brood wearing $120 Nikes, pulling food stamps out of her Penelope Shantung Shopper – and the “poor” SSDI leech who’s “too depressed to work” and living 100% on the taxpayer’s dime.
Try revisiting this topic when you’ve actually done something besides snowboarding, drinking beer at school, playing in a garage band and jumping from one dead-end ‘job’ to another. The experience might help you come up with a viable plan to cover the bottomless, truly unprecedented debt our marxist president is piling up in an effort to deliberately destroy our currency, and our Republic.
Apr 10, 2009 - 9:37 pm 254. David S:@253. goy:
My personal situation has nothing to do with the problem of tax rates and wealth distribution.
What you fail to understand is that the benefits of living in a society are not limited to that which the government explicitly guarantees. The intangible benefits are what make the “extraction” of wealth possible. Everyone does not share in these benefits equally, despite your assertions to the contrary. Those who collect larger amounts of wealth receive a greater benefit, and logically owe a greater share of their wealth to pay for it.
Your portrayal of a “welfare queen” is a quick reminder of how little you understand or appreciate the problems faced by the poor in our country, and how great your sympathy is for the rich and privileged.
Denigrating me personally is a reflection of your lack of respect for yourself and others. Try revisiting this topic when you’ve actually got some self-respect and a basic understanding of how society’s benefits accrue to the rich in the absence of progressive taxation. Your assertions are as bold as they are ignorant.
Peace.
DS
Apr 11, 2009 - 6:01 am 255. goy:- My personal situation has nothing to do with the problem of tax rates and wealth distribution.
Of course it does. You and many like you are clinging to insane fantasies about the morality of penalizing success, “extracting” wealth, and the government’s authority to redistribute wealth in our particular Constitutional Republic. Your personal situation and moral immaturity have everything to do with that – just like most folks who think as you do. I know. I used to be one of them. That’s not “denigration”, it’s just an observation of fact based on hard-won, personal experience.
What’s worse is that the insanity partly inspired by your personal situation – combined with the insanity of those who share your delusions – now directly threatens our Republic. As such, that insanity directly threatens my quality of life and that of my family, friends, relatives, clients and neighbors. So kindly dispense with the “don’t get personal” innuendo after you’ve just barked out your “resistance is futile” declaration (e.g., “The grand experiment is over… blah, blah, blah“). That movie doesn’t end the way you think it will.
And while we’re at it, I’m also intimately familiar with the problems faced by the poor in our country – I used to be one of them too. Despite the fact that it’s not strictly Constitutional, I don’t disagree with welfare or unemployment in principle. What I find unacceptable are those who steal it – and who flaunt the fact that they’re stealing it – because it just begets more welfare theft. Conversely, I do have great regard for entrepreneurs and the like who have created wealth and benefited scores of others in the process. Their example begets more industry, more innovation and a higher standard of living for everyone. I just don’t use sweeping generalization fallacy – as you have – to say that all the former are “bad” and all the latter are “good”.
- …the benefits of living in a society are not limited to that which the government explicitly guarantees.
Of course they are. Civilized society is not possible without some form of government. It follows, therefore, that the benefits of living in a civilized society are not possible without some form of government. In our case, that would be the Republican Form of Government explicitly specified in our Constitution; all the benefits of living in our society derive from that, and every citizen enjoys those benefits equally, per the law. QED.
Inventing “intangible” benefits of society is just part of your insane rationalization, Zippy. What you’re groping for there is actually human creativity (a concept you’ll encounter if you ever actually have an original thought) and the wealth created by human creativity. Some people are more creative than others. You can blame God or Darwin for this inequity, as you choose.
Either way, society isn’t necessary for human creativity OR for the creation of wealth. What society – and the rule of law provided by government – isnecessary for is to protect wealth being taken from those who have it by people who covet it. People like you. Insofar as any society fails to do that, that society slides back toward anarchy.
Perhaps what’s confusing you is that some social structures – like capitalism, for instance – can amplify our wealth creation ability. Ours does so, for everyone. Equally. If that weren’t the case, there would be no Oprah Winfrey Show, Famous Amos wouldn’t have been famous, and Paula Deen would long ago have retired in obscurity from her bank teller job.
Apr 11, 2009 - 12:23 pm 256. Donna V.:Mr. Whittle, once again you’ve done a marvelous job.
And so are you, goy. You’ve demolished David S.’s pitiful rationalizations quite nicely – but the fool keeps coming back for more.
I don’t know that he’s unemployed though. I suspect Soros must pay by the word.
Apr 11, 2009 - 5:41 pm 257. johnny virgil:I sent this to my best friend of 31 years yesterday. This 7am morning, he replied to me, saying how brilliant it was. He quoted this particular part: “From this transformational experience I learned something new and re-learned something old: first, a dream becomes a goal once you make a viable plan and stick to it, and second, the single most important thing you do in life is choose your friends.”
At 10:30 am he passed away. His last words to me where from your essay. They couldn’t be more fitting.
He passed away at
Apr 11, 2009 - 9:35 pm 258. JJ:Thank You.
Apr 11, 2009 - 10:04 pm 259. shel:hear, hear.
you said in one small essay what Ayn Rand wrote in a tome (a tome everyone needs to read now).
Apr 13, 2009 - 8:49 am 260. shel:“Your portrayal of a ‘welfare queen’ is a quick reminder of how little you understand or appreciate the problems faced by the poor in our country, and how great your sympathy is for the rich and privileged.”
David S, America doesn’t have “the poor”. America has “the broke”.
Bangladesh has “the poor”: people who don’t have an equality of opportunity. America has (had?) a constitutionally guaranteed possibility for success for individuals who choose to work their asses off.
get it? please grow up. victim complex is not a noble trait. America needs men now more than ever.
Apr 13, 2009 - 9:24 am 261. Kellie:This disscussion is interesting on an academic level but completely misplaced.
I am puzzled that the rich would simply “run.” If you have that much money, and there is that many of you, would it not be in your collective interest to put your money and time to work to effect political change. The Left is masterful at this and it would do well if wealthy Conservatives took notes from the “Left” playbook.
Republicans are simply being out-maneuvered and out-spent.
Cut your whining and get involved at any level of politics. Nominate, financially support, and physically assist strong “Conservative” candidates who will, when elected, advance your cause. Get out your voters. Take back the House, the Senate and your country. Any less than this, suggests you are not hurting enough to actually get off your duff and make a difference.
I speak from personal experience. I live in Saskatchewan, Canada which was until last year, the bastion of Canadian Socialism. No other North American region was governmentally this Left. For the first time in my life, I became involved politically, along with thousands of others, who had finally had enough.
The result of our efforts was a massive Conservative victory which has resulted in our little-known province leading North America in economic growth. Saskatchewan will be posting significant positive GDP growth, massive tax cuts, huge corporate investment, and a real estate boom. Our premier is travelling the world begging for skilled labor to immigrate.
None of this would have happened had Conservatives not rolled up their sleeves, jumped into the fray, opened their wallets, and done more than just complain.
Apr 13, 2009 - 9:49 am 262. andrea:wow – i think you forgot to be equally and righteously furious about the money being given to us rich folk by the little taxpayers – you know, the tax increment financing ($168,000,000) that geo.w. got for his stadium, or the payroll taxes that do not stay in the Medicare/Social Security fund, but are used to cover the budget shortfall created by tax breaks for people like me, with big six figure incomes – come on bill, please blow a gasket about the stuff that matters for a change xoxoxoxo
Apr 14, 2009 - 12:47 pm 263. andrea:http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/18/free_lunch_how_the_wealthiest_americans
Apr 14, 2009 - 1:22 pm 264. M. Report:just another viewpoint, backed up not with a heart-warming personal story, but with some facts about where the money really goes in this country and why we keep some of citizens undereducated and poor – and in for-profit prisons – if you’re cheney & can make possibly millions investing in them, why create jobs and opportunities? just a thought
Yow. round and round it goes…
and it comes out here.
Some years ago, so the story goes,
two fighter jocks were discussing
the relative merits of the Navy F-14
and the Air Farce F-15.
Finally, one of them says:
“Alright, lets you and me go up and
settle this _right_now_”.
But calmer heads prevailed.
Unfortunately, we are past that point;
Apr 15, 2009 - 11:58 am 265. inklingz:The US is broke, the 2nd Great Depression
is right on schedule, and Peace will have
nothing to do with the outcome, which, if we
are more lucky than we deserve, will be a
_return_ to a society in which only taxpayers can vote.
Great post… was thinking similarly yesterday….
WALL-E and the Welfare State
Did you see Pixar’s animated movie Wall-e?
It’s a cute story about Wall-e the robot, the last Waste Allocation Load Lifter (Earth Class) still working to clean up the planet—hundreds of years after humankind had destroyed it. Wall-e is the little robot who could; though all the other load lifters had long since broken down, he ‘awakened’ each morning with only his pet cockroach for company and spent the day dutifully cleaning.
…
I very much enjoyed the film but as I left the theater I couldn’t get over the image of humanity it portrayed: universally obese, all with the same stupid look on their fat faces and unable to get up from the chairs they sat in as they were fed and clothed by the ship that carried them.
It’s an image of an advanced welfare state and in many ways, I think our post-modern infatuation with “fairness” and/or “substantive equality” puts America on a path that leads down this familiar road.
more at…. http://www.inklingz.net
Apr 15, 2009 - 1:36 pm 266. MadMonk:You inspire me. THANK YOU, and welcome back!
May 3, 2009 - 8:19 pm 267. bobn:Bill, I like so much of what you say, but you have to get your facts right *every* time, since your (may I say our?) standards are so high.
The top ten percent, that pays sixty percent of the total income tax and which allows the bottom half – HALF! – to pay nothing
Two words: Payroll Tax. Also known as FICA taxes.
The payroll tax stops increasing at approx $100K. It is therefore more regressive than “income taxes”, though otherwise it is indistiguishable from them. *Everybody* pays this.
Loved the stuff about the Tribes, love most of your stuff.
And if you wonder why the rich get damned, stop thinking about the guys you know and who built their businesses themselves. I know some of those and they *are* the good guys, but they not the really rich.
Start looking at scum like Henry Paulson, Chuck Prince, Stanley O’Neal and Dick Fuld. Tell me about all the benefits that have flowed from these ass-wipes.
May 10, 2009 - 2:13 pm 268. Want to Cure Your State’s Budget Ills? Attract the Millionaires « Brian Simpson:[...] a related message, Bill Whittle has a message for the millionaires: Leave Now.
May 18, 2009 - 7:32 pm 269. James:That is such a brilliant idea. Here in our country, donating to charities is also one way of tax avoidance for the rich.
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Sep 15, 2009 - 4:41 am 272. kids water shoes:The way this administration is going, why not just print more money. lol (just joking!)
Kim
Oct 28, 2009 - 7:49 am