That awful one percent
LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson
The Left is ramping up for the 2016 election by resuscitating some ancient themes.
Among these are its ever-popular class warfare rant that has successfully stirred ballot activity for a century.
One percent of the richest on the planet control 50 percent of the world’s wealth is the presentation.
The remaining half is owned by the 99 percent who languish in the middle class or struggle to survive in the lower economic scale.
Inequality exists.What would be better is sameness.
What Barack Obama wants is a tax increase on the wealthy. He longs for it the way a lion hungers for a bloody leg.
Obama is selling his dream via the strategy of getting the middle class on his side by making the wealthy seem at extraordinary fault. Beneath it all is the snarky argument that somehow, wealthy people have done something wrong.
They don’t share enough is the shrill toast in the White House ballroom following the feast.
The president has thrown out the argument that a higher income tax on the wealthy could be redistributed to the middle class, thus leveling that annoying playing field that pops up in every other paragraph.
It could happen, I suppose, in Wonderland, but once those dollars are nailed by the IRS, there is no telling where they will end up.
I am skeptical of the intent.
It could be Obama is merely nudging us toward the socialist fantasy of paying the CEO no more than that received by the pusher of the broom.
One achieves the middle by pushing down from the top and up from the bottom. The result is penguins. Same suit of clothes, same little spot on the ice, same blank look.
My question is, why not just cut taxes for the middle class, with which the Republicans would go along, instead of taxing the wealthy more, with which the Republicans will not conjoin.
Aren’t the results the same?
Obama won’t approach it that way because it does not fit with the liberal template that the wealthy have more than they deserve. Nor does it fit the ridiculous notion that wealthy liberals can’t wait to pay more in taxes if those darned Republicans would just get out of the way.
So who are the greedy wealthy who have forced deprivation on an unsuspecting public?
Well, there’s Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, whose wealth has been placed at $80 billion.
That’s a lot, but without Mr. Gates there would be no Microsoft and no technology age as we know it. Microsoft employs 99,000 people, and I suspect they are all doing quite well.
Bill Gates not only created an indispensable product, but opportunity and wealth for thousands. Whole communities thrive because of this company and the generous man who runs it.
He founded it. His company. It doesn’t belong to the Left.
Think about this: If Gates’ assets were liquidated, they would only pay approximately one-sixth of the budget deficit for one year. It doesn’t even touch total expenditures.
America’s third richest man, following Warren Buffet, founder of Berkshire Hathaway, is Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle.
Oracle employs 105,000 people internationally. Few companies of size these days are exclusively in the American market. In other words the wealth springing from American creativity is spread across the globe already.
The various members of the Walton family (Numbers 4, 7, 8, and 9 in top 10 wealthiest) share approximately $162 billion in assets, namely Walmart stores.
The company has 2.2 million employees and does business in 27 countries. It stocks 11,000 stores daily so we can enjoy low prices and variety. It provides.
I’d say shame on the Waltons —SHAME, SHAME — except I know, as you do, Walmart began as a single store in a small town in Arkansas. The Walmart empire was built on an idea, American business acumen, and hard work.
How many Americans have gained entry level experience behind a Walmart counter?
For these reasons alone, I do not care how much dough the Waltons have. I doubt they are happier than I.
The 10th wealthiest person in America is Michael Bloomberg, the former liberal mayor of NYC, the very man who would plug the Second Amendment if only he could.
Bloomie is worth $36 billion. His company Bloomberg LP employs around 15,000. None are suffering in poverty.
What the wealthiest one percent have in common is all built something and all employ many who send their kids to school and to Walmart to buy stuff.
Most wealthy folks aren’t trying to be unfair, but I doubt that any want their work redistributed by leadership that doesn’t understand what it takes to get where they are.
Leave ‘em alone.
Well, except Bloomie. You can tax him more if you want.
He’s an ornery cuss, that rich ol’ liberal capitalist.
Larry W. Anderson believes in America, equal rights, and the right to earn as much as one legally can.
