Quote:
Originally posted by taxwonk
You still haven't addressed my point. The tax cuts put in place by the current adminnistration, which were sold as middle class tax relief, did not benefit the middle class. The greatest benefits were bestowed upon the wealthiest Americans, not the ones who do most of the working and spending that keep our economy running and keep the greater number of people employed.
Perhaps it's because you can't answer this charge that you and Club are working so hard at misdirecting the debate.
Why, Bimore, why?
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Because, Taxwonk, because!
First, why do you say that the wealthiest Americans don't work? Do you start from the proposition that all wealth over some certain amount is unearned and undeserved? Seems to me that, in our capitalist system, the ones with the most money (who are made up, by and large, of small business owners, (who, BTW, employ one or two people in our system). and NOT your hated inheritance babies) have, by definition, provided value to enough people who were willing to trade money for their efforts to amass wealth. "Value" isn't an unknown term - it means that they made the people who gave them their money satisfied that they took something from that business owner that was worth what they paid. Is a dollar earned shoveling shit more noble than one earned designing and selling water purification systems? If that's the case, let's do away with schools, and strive for the uneducated life of mules. No? You mean we value education, because an educated person can accomplish more than simply the sum of their muscle capacity? And yet, to you, the results of that education - the ability to work smarter, instead of just stronger - is an ignoble thing? Like it or not, people who cannot offer to other people any product or service that is valuable to those other people are not going to do as well as those who can. That makes sense, because they bring little to the table. Yes, these people should be supported. But, I would stop far short of your seeming wish to elevate those people to some position of nobility and honor over those who CAN do something valuable. They're not exalted because of their lack - they're simply lacking. Likewise, the people you denigrate - the productive ones who make money - don't deserve your scorn based on that very ability to make money.
Second, you seem to live a life (or at least you argue arguments) defined by envy. You've said that, yes, the middle class got a tax break. (More importantly, the middle class avoided the tax raise that would have come in Goreworld, but that's a different topic.) We did - I got a tax break. I distinctly remember it. But, you say that the rich got a bigger break as a way to prove that the middle class did NOT get the tax break promised. (Your words were "did not benefit the middle class".) I don't get this. The tax break that I get is dimished because someone else got a bigger one? Nope - I still saved that thousand bucks.
Wow, this could have used more paragraph breaks.
