It is the rich who are the real victims

[Douglas Carpenter]

And they are being mercilessly plundered. I kid you not! This is a post from a Facebook friend of my brother - responding to a post about the demonization of the poor. This is what passes for intellectualism in today's Republican Party:

The Democrats in Congress play the envy game by decrying "the rich" and "paying their fair share" and other class-warfare rhetoric, and the poor - far from being powerless! - have the votes to influence public policy toward ever-more welfare and government giveaways. The top percentage of "the rich" pay a disproportionate percentage of taxes, while a majority in this country pay little or no taxes. The "progressive" taxation is but one redistributionist scheme, and it's patently unfair that demagogues demand they pay their "fair share." It's also patently unfair that "government benefits" are portioned out way disproprotionately to the amount of taxes paid. The whole system stinks, and it's further corrupted by a professional class of lobbyists who engage in "crony capitalism." Have you ever read Frederic Bastiat's "The Law?" He talks about "plunder," and it' a real eye-opener because it almost perfectly describes our political system today.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. You have to admire the way in which the GOP is able

to convince poor people to argue that they SHOULD live under laws that redistribute wealth upwards while at the same time decrying any attempt to 'redistribute' wealth towards the people whose work actually generates that wealth.

Disgusting, but still impressive.

[L0oniX]

4. Hmmm ...I thought it was little 12 yo girls working 12 hours a day in sweat shops...

...that help them get rich.

[Yavin4]

8. Propaganda has worked well throughout human history

The beauty of the internet and modern communication is that for the first time in human history information will be shared and not hoarded.

[SamKnause]

2. Only if you live in bizarro world !!

[Kelvin Mace]

3. Here is the key line

...while a majority in this country pay little or no taxes.

So poor people don't pay sales tax and gasoline taxes? Someone else pays the taxes on on their phone bills, their cable bills and their utility bills? Whenever a poor person pulls up to a toll booth, the bill is sent to Donald Trump?

And should we discuss the tax disparity among the wealthy? If I make a million a year as a doctor, busting my ass with 60-80 hour workweeks, my federal tax bill is $346,000. But if I inherit stock that pays me a million a year, I can sit on my ass playing with my X-Box and eating pizza 24x7, and only pay $150,000 in federal taxes.

The more you make, the less you pay as a percentage of your income. Also, the more "passive" your income, the less you pay.

Am I supposed to feel bad about the billionaire who pays tens of millions in taxes every year, forcing him to scrape by on the hundreds of millions left?

[Skidmore]

5. Wonder how that guy is going to feel when those poor babies are done

looting his retirement plan.

[handmade34]

6. "Plunder" according to Bastiat...

"...it is also true that a man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others..."

[LordGlenconner]

7. The world would be a better place without people like that in it

But alas, we are forced to live with them.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Yep. The poor don't have to face the expense of buying a government to avoid paying taxes.

[TroglodyteScholar]

10. More coherent than your average winger

Still idiotic, but at least I could follow the bullshit claims he makes.

Maybe one day he'll actually get smart and realize that the poor are NOT the ones with the desire nor the means to destroy what this country stands for... The oligarchs have that well under control.

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. this is the response I wrote back

There is not more than half a dozen members of Congress who are not elected of either party who are not primarily elected with the financial backing of the wealthiest. The wealthiest of America pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes than many of their secretaries. NO one is escaping taxes even if a number are not paying directly into Federal income tax. No wealth is created in a vacuum. It requires both labor and state supported infrastructure - it is the wealthiest that benefit the most from this. The United States has the least generous policies toward the poor of any country in the developed world. Most citizens of other democracies drop their jaws in shock at how cruelly the poor are treated in America. And most poor - work full time for their poverty and any food stamps or any other assistance is a subsidy to survive while they spend their lives subsidizing an economy with their artificially low wages that would not even be legal in most advanced democracies. What we saw throughout most of the 20th Century around the world with social democracy in Europe and the New Deal in America was a move toward a more egalitarian society. With the collapse of many of the institutions that supported a more democratic society - we now see is an attempt to restore the 19th Century order where the rich have everything. But there has simply never been a single case in the history of the world that any country had a successful economy without a strong state supported infrastructure including a reasonably generous welfare state and relatively high taxes. The libertarian economics that has a following in some circles today can only make sense if one does not look at the experience of any other countries or look at the patterns of history. The last thing the sensible rich should want is a society where the people have nothing to lose but their chains. At the end of the day - if things really degenerate and it all falls apart and the hope is denied - social democracy and at least some sincere moves toward economic equity are all that stands between the rich and the guillotine.

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Then I followed it up with this very recent article which I actually came across here on DU

CNBC survey shows millionaires want higher taxes to fix inequality

But CNBC's first-ever Millionaire Survey reveals that 51 percent of American millionaires believe inequality is a "major problem" for the U.S., and nearly two-thirds support higher taxes on the wealthy and a higher minimum wage as ways to narrow the wealth gap.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101634240