WSJ - "The Price of Taxing the Rich" - The poor oppressed rich? Please!

[TomCADem]

Once again, the corporate media is pushing the corporate media meme. If it is not pushing the meme that weakening unions is good for the middle class, why not the meme that the rich are oppressed? Of course, in California, due to Prop 13, Warren Buffet pays less in property taxes on his California home, then he does on his home in Nebraska. Still, don't let the facts stand in the way of a good corporate narrative.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704604704576220491592684626.html

As Brad Williams walked the halls of the California state capitol in Sacramento on a recent afternoon, he spotted a small crowd of protesters battling state spending cuts. They wore shiny white buttons that said "We Love Jobs!" and argued that looming budget reductions will hurt the Golden State's working class.

Mr. Williams shook his head. "They're missing the real problem," he said.

The working class may be taking a beating from spending cuts used to close a cavernous deficit, Mr. Williams said, but the root of California's woes is its reliance on taxing the wealthy.

Nearly half of California's income taxes before the recession came from the top 1% of earners: households that took in more than $490,000 a year. High earners, it turns out, have especially volatile incomes—their earnings fell by more than twice as much as the rest of the population's during the recession. When they crashed, they took California's finances down with them.

[Cresent City Kid]

1. Our last best chance to remedy this was in the lame duck session

We need to make this clear: Money doesn't come from the rich, it goes to them. They are not the source of jobs, they create the fewest possible jobs that keeps the cash rolling in. When robots cost less than the minimum wage, McDonalds will be a vending machine and even the crappy jobs will be gone. This is the simplest case of cause and effect in all of politics: Bush tax cuts first, then crash.

[Starry Messenger]

2. That article made me want to puke.

We have 80 billionaires in residence in this state. I seriously doubt they are getting taxed enough.

[Johonny]

12. owners of Dodgers paid no taxes!

but you know they are getting too taxes

[midnight]

3. I thought California's wows stemmed from ENRON?

[Armstead]

4. Poor babies

Maybe those ingrates should spend a Year working their asses off at a minimum wage job and try to make ends meet.......maybe they'd stop their whining

[Michael J]

5. What Do You Expect?

That's Rupert Murdoch's newspaper. Do you expect anything above atrocious?

[TomCADem]

11. The Corporate Media Exists To Spread The Propaganda Of Its Sponsors

Remember to do as you are told. Blame Democrats. Give Republicans a free pass. Rince and repeat.

[upi402]

6. We don't have a spending problem - we have a REVENUE problem

But those poor poor rich people. Awwwww, snif snif - they pay most of the taxes, blah blah blah
:sarcasm:

[ProfessionalLeftist]

9. Exactly. n/t

[aquart]

7. Do they mean apart from the personal satisfaction?

Nope. Still looks like a win-win. Taxes their asses off. NO MORE KOCHS.

[aquart]

8. No man should be so rich he has nothing left to buy but his government.

[intaglio]

10. Oh! the poor liddle didums!

Sounds like they need to be soaked a bit more

[reformist2]

13. A nation worth $60 trillion can't fund a government of $3 trillion?! Gimme a break!

It's easy to scare people with big numbers. But when you look at it objectively, all the years of wailing and gnashing of teeth about the debt, the deficit and taxes amount to a few percentage points of the national wealth - whether the rich are going to hoard it all, or whether a few percentage points will be allowed to circulate through the government each year.