I recently enjoyed a discussion with a visitor to this blog about God and evil. This post is not about God and evil. One thing he said (Funny ... I assume it's a "he." Could be a "she.") regarding God and judgment went like this: "‘Course it is never about them being killed—they have their spot assured in heaven. Easy to grandly wipe out 'the other guy.'" The suggestion was that we're perfectly happy to have others judged as long as it's not us.
The other day I saw a political ad. "Who is on our side?" they asked. The approach was this: Take money from the rich people and not from those with lower income. The arbitrary line that was drawn was $250,000 a year. This is appealing to most Americans. In 2006, the top 1% of American taxpayers made $388,806 or more per year. The top 5% made over $153,542 per year. So, there you have it. Something less than 5% but more than 1% of Americans would find themselves bearing the brunt of the heavy increase in government spending that will be required to meet the goals of universal health care and other programs we "need."
This is a selling point to Americans, apparently. As long as I get a tax break and new, better government programs giving me stuff I haven't earned but believe to be my right, what do I care about those who pay more? As long as I have my spot assured, it's easy to grandly wipe out the other guy, especially if he has been characterized as "evil" by the "have nots."
No comments:
Post a Comment