Just give me credits

How is it that certain catchphrases resonate so well with truly ignorant and clueless people? How is it that the stupidity is so powerful that it actually moves them to vote against their best interests? In Florida we now have “Joe the Plumber” commercials, where series of people try to show profound ignorance and lack of understanding of how the tax system works, the punchline being:

“I’m supposed to work harder just to pay more taxes?“

Yes, you dumb sack of shit, and that’s not called socialism, that is called capitalism.

The harder you work the more money you make and the more taxes you pay.

This is not a really new concept either, it’s been around since 1862, and started as a way to pay for the Civil War. Ever since then we’ve had a tax system (which actually started as a progressive tax system to begin with, charging 3% on the low end and 5% if you made more than 10K a year) under which you pay more taxes the more money you make.

This is the very foundation of capitalism — that greed is good part of Gordon Gecko’s speech. The harder you work the more money you make the more money you contribute to your community and your country and the more of it goes to eliminate poverty, educate the population, feed the hungry, build the roads, build schools, elevate the income and prosperity which feeds back to the prosperity of the entire country and with more expendable income go to exponentially benefit the richest and the hardest working among us.

Somehow this foundation of the federal government in a capitalist society seems to have gotten the “socialist” label over the past year or so. Spreading the wealth is such a mythical concept to the very same people that drive around on the public roads, send kids to public schools, collect social security, veterans benefits, apply for small business loans and try to build a business on top of the very same beneficiaries of all of the above.

I have a plea for Joe the Plumber and The Angry Villager Band – please quit your jobs and go work for McDonalds. You will make less than $15,000 a year, qualify for some government assistance and be able to pay less than 10% tax. Hard work is overrated, the harder you work the more money you make (which for this part of the argument should be ignored) and the socialists are going to take more and more of your money. If you make more than $23,100 they will try to take 15% of your money, over $43,550 they will try to take 25% of your money and if you work even harder they will take away 28%, or even 33% or oh my god, even 35%. And it gets even worse. If you get really rich and build houses and stock portfolios and cars and get wealthy the socialists will take even more money even after you die in terms of estate taxes. What is the incentive to work (aside from building wealth and raising your standard of living) if all it does is pay more taxes??????So to make sure you don’t pay more in taxes you should go work at McDonalds and aim to die as broke as you possibly can.

And please stop bitching about getting a tax refund. Greed is good. When there is prosperity ambitious people spot the opportunity and they build businesses around it that benefit more people and improve everyone that business touches – higher wages, higher tax brackets – higher standard of living. On the flip side, when the government is forced to cut programs that a lot of families rely on it causes those families to have parents cut hours or even quit working which decreases discretionary spending which decreases the consumerist nature which leads to more layoffs and more unemployed people which in turn leads to less tax revenues and an effective freeze in American prosperity that most of us have enjoyed for quite some time.

Patriotism goes beyond a bumper sticker. If you are Joe the Plumber and get the privilege of casting a vote this November 4th ask yourself if you are really voting for your and your family’s best interests.