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Townhall
Finance...
Taking Earned Money
is Different than Earning Money
by Charles Payne
I’m your boogie man that’s what I am
I’m here to do whatever I can
Be it early mornin’ late afternoon
Or at midnight it’s never too soon
—KC & Sunshine Band
“I’m Your Boogieman” was the 11th top hit of 1977, a year that saw
massive tumult in America, especially in New York City, which
experienced daily fears of violence, the Son of Sam, and the Blackout.
There was a time when boogieman was the dark monster that lived under
your bed or in your closet, but in the disco era, it became the guy
that put that pep in your step and made life fun. For all the talk that
the current period in America is worse than any since the Great
Depression, I submit the 1970s, when misery was a million times
greater. That said whenever there was a chance to get something for
nothing most people did so.
I’ve told the story many times, but I have to mention it again because
it points to notions of entitlement, greed, and mob behavior. The
blackout in the summer of 1977 saw mass looting all over New York, and
no neighborhood in Manhattan was hit harder than mine. Walking to the
corner moments after the lights went out, I witnessed a group of guys
tugging at a metal gate that covered a jewelry store. The cry went out,
“everybody pull … everybody get something” and so there was a mass
effort that did dislodge the gate. The store was given the bum’s rush,
and within minutes everything was gone.
Fast forward to the summer of 2012 and there is a cry going out that
says “everybody pull the lever and everybody will get something.”
Instead of the corner jewelry store, the new targets are people earning
more than one million dollars a year. In my neighborhood, people were
poor, so taking from a “rich” jeweler didn’t feel wrong on any level.
Of course growing up poor and only hearing how all rich people got
there through inheritance and theft, it just felt right to take things
that fell off a truck or in this case from a broken storefront window.
But, you grow up and you learn better. You grow up and learn to respect
how 80% of millionaires are self-made in this nation. You want to
preserve that for future generations including your own children.
By the way, my mother wouldn’t let me join my friends in what was
Christmas in July. I watched people getting things like watches and
boom boxes from a window. I didn’t see it as looting, just a great
opportunity. I didn’t see victims, just rich businesses that had so
much money it didn’t matter anyway. I didn’t see those people that
opened those gates before most people on the block got up in the
morning and worked so late while most were going to bed at night. I
didn’t see where it would do any harm. Thank goodness my mother did.
President Obama is saying I’m your boogieman, and if voters give him
the power he’ll make sure they all get something. That’s what all the
pressing for the so-called Buffett Rule is all about. When we hear
about fair share and what could be done with money confiscated from
millionaires, it sounds like that guy leading the looters on that
fateful night. This money is not going to lower the deficit, curb
spending (it actually will encourage more spending and more programs
like TARP which exist now as the personal piggy bank of the White
House) or magically create jobs.
President Obama suggests on his website that taking money earned by
millionaires will benefit a myriad of people/voting blocs:
> Students-aid
> Public Safety Employees-jobs and safety for communities
> Senior’s Economic Security-savings for seniors
> Teachers-teachers in classrooms
> Reducing the Deficit-fiscal responsibility
> Veterans-support for veterans
There is no way the Buffett Tax will do anything meaningful for any of
the above, but instead the money would go into money-losing solar
projects or other rat holes that are sucking up billions of taxpayer
dollars. The numbers have been crunched and the Buffett Rule might
bring in $64.0 billion over a decade while the deficit increases
another $7.0 trillion. Still, the lure of free money and assuaging
jealousy will ring true for too many people. On Varney and Co yesterday
we discussed advertising for Earned Income Tax Credit which essentially
pays people earning less than $49,000 because they’re earning less than
$49,000.
How many people are going to put it in park? Why work late and actually
jeopardize up to $5,300 a year when the government is forking over the
money because “you deserve it.” Just think, we punish hard workers,
risk takers and innovators, but if you don’t lift your financial
station in life, you deserve a cut of the check of those people that
did put in the overtime. The campaign says that being rich is bad and
must be punishable through confiscation of earnings. To bring up how
nuts this push for the federal government to snatch all the money
earned through hard work and risk-taking, we should take a look at
China.
In China, communist leaders are pushing back against a movement that
would abandon recently capitalistic trends that have made the nation
the hottest economy on the planet. It’s crazy, but the leaders of China
are fighting for the ability of people to become rich while in America
there is a movement to limit upside economic opportunities and punish
the rich. What the heck is going on?
I’m really wondering if, President Obama speaks about the rewards from
this plan to confiscate more earnings from successful people, he
doesn’t toss into the list stuff we can get from robbing the earnings
of the rich, things like a new car, plus all the Apple products, plus a
shopping spree at the local mall, plus renovated kitchens.
What’s truly amazing is while President Obama was pumping up the kids
down in Boca, he was pitching a plan that has sunk Europe to the point
it will never see its past glory. Italy’s stock market was off 5% and
Spain is beginning to teeter. Taking from productive citizens to reward
those not living up to potential or who took shortcuts is nasty and
mean. I know so many people with that mindset have never worked as hard
as I do and even say they feel sorry for me. I’m fine with that, but
they deserve no more bites at my paycheck.
Here’s the real sin about all of these “fair” and “share the wealth”
lies - they hurt the poor more than they help. It creates ghettos that
are physical and mental. It sucks out desire to work and dashes dreams
as out of reach. The rhetoric provides cover and enables excuses for
not getting in the mix and trying to be productive.
Read this and other articles at Townhall Finance
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