It completely baffles me how the Republicans have conditioned the folks who are getting fucked by these tax cuts to make the fight for the ones who are benefiting from them. I'm a beneficiary of the Bush tax cuts, albeit not to the same degree as Buffet. One year, my taxes were cut by more than the amount that any non-lawyer in my firm makes as a result of the 4.6% cut from 39.6% to 35%. I didn't hire anybody. I didn't buy anything. I just stashed the extra money in an investment account, probably in a international stock fund.
Yet you've got all these folks who make far less in a year than I saved in that one year squealing like a pig stuck under a gate about how horrible it would be to raise the rate on other folks back to 39.6%, when in point of fact, it has not effect on them other than to lower the deficit or provide them more government services.
I'm to the point where I just don't worry about the debt or tax rates, in some respects. I get cuts one way, or interest rates rise the other way. Either way, I win. I haven't borrowed a dime in probably 15 years. I collect interest, I don't pay it. If the poor and the working class want to fuck themselves at my expense -- and apparently they do -- fuck it! I guess I'll let the dumb motherfuckers go ahead. But in my heart, I know it's a shame and bad for the country.
What is it about our education system, or our political process, that leads folks to act in a way that is so clearly contrary to their economic interest. I've studied behavioral psychology and behavioral economics looking for an answer and can't find one. Their actions are at war with the general tenants of democracy and microeconomics. Why do they engage in this behavior. Does anyone have any theories? I'm truly asking because I'm frankly completely stumped on this one.
Originally Posted by TexTushHog
there is no reason to be stumped. there are different philosophies.
you ponder why someone doesnt vote in their own economic interest as if some "right" to be voted for or some strong-armed tactic is in their interest or the promise of some benefit is in their interest, or a tax to be levied on others is to their benefit.
Some people believe those things, given by masters, or taken by force, plied upon as debt, promised now and to be paid later, things that dull the senses, never appreciated by the receivers, expected as due with an ever expanding churlishness, are not in our best interest.
take the riots in britain and greece, and the welfare states that cannot ultimately meet the measley promises of those who wish to be kings.
for tax as they will, and provide benefits as they can, soon enough the dispiriting of producers, even the spirit of entreprenuership in the most intrepid, can too become dull and instead of an expansion of prosperity, there remains only the vast "I want mine from you" mentality and there is, soon enough, no "you" left.
you have studied "behavorial" psychology and economics you say and to you it seems that any momentary increase one can garner or fleeting right or ability to vote oneself a benefit is only logical, and it puzzles you why some people don't. while it really is the height of illogic and short sighted and dulling.
it is possible to maintain all the form and appearance of a free republic while in fact become despotic.
tocqueville wondered if we shall arise every four years out of our torpor to elect our masters and then sink back into slavery.
we still have a glimmer of american Individualism, and there are those fighting to maintain it, not fighting for more benefits.
so someone making $50,000 per year just might not be resentful of someone making $20,000,000. maybe they are glad it is still possible and they know that the product of that person which has allowed the $20,000,000 to be made has benefited the community much more than all the taxes could ever do. maybe it is to our economic benefit to be as capitalistic as is possible. maybe socialism does dull the spirit and create a slavish torpor and a churlish craven people. maybe it harms the future of our children and grandchildren, and maybe even still some believe it.
We keep talking about your lil pepe and nuts and people are going to start talking....