ROBIN HOOD IS RICH!

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Here’s something on the national horizon that is so profoundly unfair and potentially counterproductive for the economy that it’s frightening. Yet it could come to pass:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/opinion/23krugman.html

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And here’s a response to it that really made me feel hopeful about my country:

“Adrian

New York, NY

August 23rd, 2010

11:52 am

Dr. Krugman,The socially-responsible wealthy do exist but their voices have been drowned out by the conservative propaganda. Some of us have been so incredibly fortunate to be among the top 1-2%, and (surprise!) we would readily welcome higher top-bracket taxes to give back to our nation in dire need. Our fellow Americans are struggling, while the widening rich-poor gap is both undesirable and unsustainable. There is hardly any satisfaction in being affluent if we are surrounded by an ocean of poverty.

Yet, it is precisely during these trying times that the conservative movement has revealed its true colors of ultra selfishness. The staggering amount of misinformation has in fact led to many struggling low-income Americans — those who could actually benefit from lower taxes and/or more stimulus — in effect believing that the rich should not be taxed any further, lest we start looking like socialist Europeans! This is simply unconscionable.

Believe me, I am not the only one among the lucky few who feel this way, but our voices aren’t being heard. Oh, and by the way, I am an immigrant who owes a huge amount of gratitude to America and am prepared to give back.

Adrian”

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Today’s strange brand of “conservatism” has taken a death grip on the radical, relatively-new notion (1940s) of the “virtue of selfishness”; so it would have us believe that there are few wealthy people like this man. I think there are lots. Remember when Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and several other super-rich men appeared before Congress to argue AGAINST repealing the estate tax?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0214-01.htm

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Yes, I’m getting slightly optimistic here because of Adrian’s post, but that’s a long-term hopefulness, based on a sneaking suspicion that common decency and common sense wins out in the long run. In the short run, though, I still have to ask you, my friends, to please not vote Republican this Fall. If many of you do, we’ll have another round of tax cuts for the Rich, restrictions of public services (except for the sacrosanct military, of course!), and probably a serious effort to mess up Social Security under the guise of “budget austerity”. All this can lead us in only one direction.

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It’s dangerous for all strata of a society for it to end up where this one is headed: a small island of super-wealthy people surrounded by a vast sea of struggling, unhelped Poor.

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Don’t believe me? Read the history of Guatemala.

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Hopefully,

Nightman1

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