Excellent post by Daily Kos diarist Gaius. It’s well written and the perfect length, I recommend everyone read it in its entirety. But here’s one part I know you’re gonna like!
Many of the 53% crowd seem quite proud of their Christian faith. I am not religious myself, but I am reasonably certain that Jesus would not respond to the poor and unemployed with shouts of “Get a job!” I vividly remember what it was like to be poor. To be concise, it sucked, and my heartfelt sympathies automatically go out to anyone who has to experience it, especially children who are blameless for their circumstances. Whenever I meet someone who has not been as lucky as I have been, I recognize how easily our roles could have been reversed by the random forces of fate. And despite my lack of religion, I instinctively think “There but for the grace of God go I.” If only those who actually believe in God would think the same thing more often they might not be so eager to cut my taxes.
Excellent article, thank you for pointing it out. Kudos and whatnot to Gaius. I wonder if this sentiment is really carried across a significant number of 1%ers, or if it is just the circle of friends of this person.
@herp – I think that the sentiment is probably carried across most of the 1%. To the point in the article, a 3.5% increase in taxes just won’t be noticed to most of them who actively work in investing, managing sizable (but not large) corporations, etc.
I’m pretty sure that this whole trying to gut taxes approach is not coming the top 1%, but rather a portion of the top 0.01% or so. It is from the richest families like the Koch’s, the Walton’s, and so forth…basically, the same families that campaigned (and succeeded) to eliminate / drastically reduce estate taxes back 1/2 a decade ago.