The Right Wing's Freak Out on "Wealth Redistribution"

[Athens30603]

Seriously, I'm almost at my wits end. They all act like this is some completely new-fangled socialist conspiracy dreamed up by Obama and Co. None of them seem to realize that so long as we have a progressive income tax there will always be "wealth redistribution". So long as we engage in corporate welfare and bailouts there will be "wealth redistribution". So long as we have federally guaranteed student loans (whereby the gov't backs loans that a student couldn't get with their own credit) we will have "wealth redistribution". And on and on and on.

Unless and until every single person in the US makes the same exact amount of money and pays the exact same amount of taxes each year there will be "wealth redistribution".

How hard is this to understand?

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. It's ALL they have left...

The GOP has really, completely, run out of ideas.

Hatred and Taxes... it is the last gasp of a dying breed.

[Athens30603]

2. It SUCH a completely non-thinking way

of going about their argument. It baffles me completely.

[Xenotime]

22. Soon they won't have even that.

[MrModerate]

3. The are convinced that American is as stupid as the drones around them . . .

And sadly some Americans are. Just fewer and fewer each passing day.

[GaYellowDawg]

4. I can tell you how to drive them crazy.

Tell them the wealth redistribution has already happened over the last 30 years, and that Obama will engage in wealth restoration to the middle class. And when they say "That's wealth redistribution!!" put an infinitely patient expression on your face, and say, "no, the redistribution has already occurred. Obama is for wealth restoration to the middle class." Rinse and repeat. Every time they say "redistribution," counter with "restoration" and state firmly that the redistribution is being corrected. It will drive them absolutely crazy because you cut their entire argument off at the knees.

[Athens30603]

7. Good call! n/t

[But....]

9. Me likie!

:evilgrin: :rofl:

[Selatius]

5. They only favor redistribution...upward.

If you look over the last 30 years, workers' wages have largely stagnated and have actually fallen lower due to the deleterious effects of inflation. If you look at the wages of people among the top 1 percent of income earners, you find that their income has accelerated well above and way beyond inflation. Some CEOs now make upward of 400x the pay of the lowest worker. Back in the 1970s it was more like 20x the pay.

[greymattermom]

6. Racism

It's just a code word for racism. If you're at the bottom of the pile you can make yourself feel better by looking down on poor people who get welfare. All their phrases are code, you just need to listen to them when they're not in public to understand that. This is from my daughter's boyfriend, heard at work on Nov. 5.

"Hey, I'm surprised you're even here today. Checks start tomorrow!"
"Oh, yeah, we can all go home, wait for our checks."
"There's gonna be a lot of disappointed people in about two months. They're gonna be wearing out the hinges on the mailbox. <"angry black man" voice> Where my check at?!"

"I've got my gun in the car."
"You ready to turn it over? To a homeless man, so he can make money."
"What, robbing people?"
"Yeah. But only people with jobs."

"I can't believe that n...r won. He's got six months, and somebody's gonna shoot his ass."

[Athens30603]

8. I'm not willing to go that far

and accuse them all of being racists but there are certainly those that feel that way. It just baffles me that this concept (and practice) has been around for years and years and years in the US and they want to lay it all at the feet of Obama.

I'm not an economist but I know a few things about economics. I've read everything from Marx to Smith (I'm just interested in this stuff) so maybe I think it should all be common knowledge when it isn't.

[Iterate]

15. It's not necessarily overt racism,

but is built into the structure of their argument and economic agenda.

Paul Krugman writes well about this -nothing particularly profound or complicated, just well said. He argues that the economic better times and more civil politics are the result of the equitable, New Deal generated income distribution, and that the Republican economic agenda has simply been anti- New Deal with a racist and aristocratic core.

Too much emphasis has been placed on the tax aspects of this "redistribution" and not nearly enough on equitable wages and full employment, both of which will have an exponentially greater effect.

Krugman reads like an Obama blueprint. Every Republican talking point is an echo from the dark ages.

[Chulanowa]

10. Funny thing is, most of them will be getting a meaty tax cut

It is very hard for them to understand. They've been brought up on a steady doctrine of trickle-down economics. I was recently told by a fellow with a perfectly straight face, that the wealthy are the base of our economy and the middle class - working scum like he and I - well, we're the beneficiaries of the wealthy. He also thinks a huge sales tax would be better than any sort of income tax. This is a guy pulling in less than $50k a year, and he wants to pay 15% more on everything he buys, because he beleives in the "fair tax" plan - basically just that flat tax bullshit, only tacked on after the paycheck is cut so that it stifles commerce, real smart idea.

These people have been fed misinformation and lies for so long, it has become so utterly integral to their worldview, that I honestly don't believe they will ever be able to be educated. At this point, it's pretty much a cultic religion for them. And it can take years to "deprogram" a single cult member. The American conservative will leap at any chance to vote against their own well-being, because they are told that their "betters" will handle it all and take care of it for them, which is really rahter ironic given how much htye parade around with "liberty" on their lips and pamphlets decrying "big government" in hteir hands.

[Athens30603]

12. The Fair Tax and a Flat Tax are different things

But I see what you're saying.

[Chulanowa]

16. A kick in the face and a kick in the crotch are different things too

But they both end up with you on the ground clutching where you were kicked and considering your day to have taken a very wrong turn, don't they?

The flat tax takes away an equal percentage of income from everyone's paycheck.
The fair tax adds an equal percentage of cost to each product.

Because a loaf of bread doesn't give a damn how much money you have, both proposals screw the hell out of those with less money. The flat tax reduces the buying power of the poor exponentially more than it does the rich (15% of $250,000 is, in terms of buying power, less of a deduction than 15% of $25,000). The fair tax is even worse, in that it actively punishes those with less money for buying. (Is paying 25% more for that loaf of bread more or less painful if you're on a $200 a week paycheck lifestyle than if you're on that $250,000 annual income?)

But... you get what I'm saying. :) I just want to gnaw the faces off the people who came up with these ideas, like a badger mauling a potato.

[johan helge]

11. The Repubs are so shameless

Wealth redistribution - making the rich less rich and the poor less poor - has always been considered to make life more fair, as far as I know. Suddenly, the Repubs behave as this is something illegitimate! Talking about trying to change what's considered good!

[Athens30603]

13. That's not what surprises me

There's always been a debate over whether this type of activity is "good" or not but what get s me is that they're acting like it's a NEW concept!

[johan helge]

14. You are right, I agree (nt)

[wroberts189]

17. They know "trickle down" unregulated capitalism is dead. n/t

[Enthusiast]

18. Behind this thinking is a

persistent Puritanism in this society. Wealth = Virtue, to these people. If you are poor they believe you are not working hard enough or you are lazy and therefore deserve your lot in life. Also, their greatest fear is someone will get something "they don't deserve".

[TWiley]

19. What about church? They take money in and then give it out. to others.

Is this also "the redistribution of wealth"

Oh, the republicans only want the religious bigots to do this through the "faith based initiaves" programs. Oops, they only redistribute to their own flock, and when they have 10's of millions of dollars in excess, they buy political tv commercials.

what a racket.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. All Economic Systems Redistribute Wealth

All of them. No exceptions. (Even barter.)

If one thinks redistribution of wealth equates to socialism or communism, then one is simply not capable of thinking deeper than a buzzword. All economics redistribute wealth and if that's all they've got, tell them they're too stupid to worry about.
The Professor

[HughBeaumont]

21. E-mail them this cartoon:

Reagan and Bewsh The First also raised taxes in their terms because they had to. Dauphin George the Dumber never stopped his war or raised taxes and, well . .. mess.

[Athens30603]

24. AWESOME!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

[MadrasT]

23. "How hard is this to understand"

Apparently well nigh impossible, when the subject individuals have no brain.

[applegrove]

25. As long as there is an army & wars there will be wealth redistribution.

[leftofthedial]

26. how come it wasn't wealth redistribution when the rich were getting the cuts?