If we only taxed the rich...
A constant liberal talking point is that the top one percent of American have exploited the rest of the country to acquire their wealth. It’s simply not true. These claims are based on outdated statistics that haven’t adequately changed as the country has changed. James Pethokoukis has an excellent analysis that defines five reason why income inequality is a myth.
“Remember when even upper-middle class families worried about staying on a long distance call for too long? When flying was an expensive luxury? When only a minority of the population had central air conditioning, dishwashers, and color televisions? When no one had DVD players, iPods, or digital cameras? And when most Americans owned a car that broke down frequently, guzzled fuel, spewed foul smelling pollution, and didn’t have any of the now virtually standard items like air conditioning or tape/CD players?”
No doubt the past few years have been terrible. But the past few decades have been pretty good—for everybody.
My guess is most of these trust fund types haven’t never wanted for anything their entire life. Their faux outrage is based on a rich yet empty life filled by guilt. By almost any measure most Americans are better off now than they were ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. The trust funders should dedicate themselves to helping the poor to ease their guilt instead of asking the state to do it. That’s the point, though; they don’t want to do it.
Obviously rich kids aren’t the only ones protesting. The other people are union members, hipsters and wannabe hippies. The non-union working class has no time for a movement that absolves the government from any blame. These occupiers are woefully led astray by bad statistics and bad leadership. Sadly, so is much of the left.
