I have written in the past that I didn't much care if the 1% were living like emperors, if that meant the rest of us were living like kings and queens. I still feel that way -- the problem is, that's not how it has worked.
The top one percent -- the top five percent or more -- are living better than ever. The rest of us? Not so much. Oh, it's not as if most people in the Western World were suffering in grinding poverty; but from the middle class on down, most people count themselves lucky to be standing still. It has held true in the U.S. for a long time now, no matter which party holds the Presidency and/or Congress. It's fun to blame the ones you didn't vote for, but the evidence doesn't bear it out. Most of them -- and their best pals and contributors -- have got theirs, and to hell with the rest of us. Some of 'em are better at wishing us, "Sucks to be you," all tied up in ribbons and bows and some are worse, but the outcome is the same.
In that light, I cannot help but remember that the essential topic of the first great televised clash of the pundits between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. was not, "What is the proper function of government," or some other philosophical issue, but -- in the long-vanished economic egalitarianism of the 1960s! -- how government might best keep the poor from eating the rich.
I guess the rich stopped worrying. I wonder how that's going to play out?
What people forget is that rich people derive their wealth from the businesses that they own. Yes, they paid taxes. Where did the money come from? It came from you and me. All the business owner did was collect the money for the government.
ReplyDeleteIs that how that works?
ReplyDeleteFunny, I thought the most typical method was to have rich parents.
Eat the rich? Why would I want to? Do you know where they have been?
ReplyDelete