Jim Webb was on Meet The (de)Press(ed) this past Sunday and had this to say:
Appearing yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Webb said economic disparity is the "most important issue facing our country."Excuse me...what? The MOST important thing? Not the War On Terror? Not the social security mess? Not the incredibly low quality of our public schools? Not the immigration problem? Economic disparity?
First of all "economic disparity" is code for "someone else has more money than you do, aren't you jealous?"
Secondly, we have the best economy in the world. And more than likely at this point right now we have the best economy that has ever existed on the face of this planet. Our unemployment rate is 4.2, the stock market is booming, hundreds of thousands of new jobs are created every month. And all this despite the economic disasters that were 9/11 and Katrina.
But Jim Webb thinks the fact that some people have more than others is the single biggest problem in this country today. He writes in the Wall Street Journal:
"America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars.I'm having a hard time believing that this man is serious.
"They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1 percent now takes in an astonishing 16 percent of national income, up from 8 percent in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes."
The first idiocy of this theory is that he doesn't mention that the rich are the ones who pay most of the taxes. The richest %1 of this country pay %34.27 of the taxes, that's more than a third. And the top %50 richest pay %96.54 of our taxes. So making the rich pay more taxes isn't going to help anything, they are already paying most of the taxes. However raising their taxes will do one thing, it will force them to raise the prices on their goods or services, and that my friend WILL have an impact on the middle and lower classes.
And what is this business about living in a different country!!??! They live in the United States Of America where literally anyone can become a millionaire through hard work and perseverance. In this country we believe it is a God given right, a duty even, to work hard and make the best life for yourself that you can. Is Jim Webb really surprised that people use their hard earned money to send their children to better schools to get better educations than our government sponsored ones could ever hope to provide.
The second idiocy of this way of thinking is probably the one that bothers me the most. He talks about how the top %1 take twice as much of the national income than 20 years ago. But what he doesn't mention is that there are now tons more people who can fall in to that "richer class" definition. Get it? In other words more and more people are becoming rich. People are getting more returns on their investments, both of the monetary and the hard work variety. For the first time ever this year the Forbes 100 list included all billionaires. Now if the list included 5 gazzilionaires at the top and then 95 others then Webb might have more of a point.
But he doesn't, he just wants you to feel jealous so he can promise you things and get you to vote for him. You notice that he doesn't talk about poor people, the doesn't have to talk about feeding the starving children, he can't point to breadlines or claim that we are in a recession. So in order for him to make you feel like a victim he has to point out how many people have more than you do, and then make you think that the only way things can be fixed so that everything is "fair" is for the government to step in.
Rush Limbaugh made an excellent point yesterday when talking about the differences between liberals and conservatives:
Conservatism looks at average people and sees mountains of potential, wants only the best for everybody because that's how you get a great country. Liberalism looks at the average American with contempt, sees hopelessness, no chance whatsoever of that person becoming anything without the assistance of liberals and big government and so forth.People like Jim Webb are arrogant in the extreme, they don't care about letting you get the best reward for your work. They think they know what's best for you, even more than you do. And thus want to make you as dependant as possible on the government so that they can decide what's best for you, and not in inconsequently, stay in power themselves.
Linked to Basil's Blog, Jo's Cafe, Rightwing Nation.com, Outside the Beltway and Stop The ACLU. Thanks Guys.
