The Politics of Jealousy

In this post i may subtly (or not so subtly) mention some of the things i currently dislike.

i was thinking recently about the Obama campaign and how the Democrats are trying to handle the election.  Yes, Obama seems more negative than i have seen in a while.  i guess this has to do with a flailing economy and high jobless numbers.  i guess it also helps that Obama's lauded "economic stimulus "didn't work - which was actually to be expected (Keynesian economics are short sighted and of diminishing effectiveness - assuming they ever had any in the first place). 

The first technique i saw was using one of the Democrat's attack dogs, Nevada senator Harry Reid (a fellow Mormon, sort of).  Reid made unfounded claims about Mitt Romney (his real first name is Willard).  i see a nefarious reason why he did this.  Basically, the bullet point was going to be "don't vote for Romney because he has money and you don't". 

The politics of jealousy (as i see them) is an attempt to demonize success.  Basically, this is playing on people's innate jealousy.  People always seem to compare themselves to others.  There are even people out there who believe that if someone has money they are evil.  If you are not as successful as someone else maybe it has to do with you (and your failings) no a broken system. 

If you are making $50K a year and are paying, say 25%, and someone comes out with a baseless claim that Mitt Romney is paying something like 15%, you might buy the line that he is getting off easy (or some bogus concept of "rich privilege").  There are differences in his income stream than those of a "typical worker" (if such a thing exists).  The typical worker is mostly relying on salary, whereas someone like Mitt Romney likely has cash flows from interest income and investments. 

Yes, interest income should be taxed at a lower rate.  Unrealized capital gains should be taxed at all (as they are purely "paper gains").  While we are at it, gifts and inheritances should never be taxed either.  The tax code (in the US) is needlessly complex and broken.  i'm all for a flat tax with almost no deductions. 

A political candidate should be under no obligation to release this kind of information (taxes, income, etc) to the public.  If the thing you harp on the most is taxes, you must be feeling really desperate (avoiding the issues and all).

The real goal is far more insidious.... income redistribution.  i guess that it also helps that many people don't know what they actually pay.  If you just take the federal income taxes in isolation, the middle class gets off paying far less than they should due to tax credits, deductions, etc (like mortgage, child, etc).  The "lower class" get off basically free (or paid).  The problem may very well be that everyone is being overtaxed (just not at a singular level).

In recent years i have seen the politics of jealousy rear its ugly head numerous times.  One such occurrence was a vote in Oregon to raise the tax rates of more successful citizens.  Basically, what this says to me is that people want "government services" but don't want to pay for them.  Or in other words (may be different) is that people want to take someone else's money and give it to themselves (usually under the flimsy cover of trying to help some other group).  The whole appeal to many of Obamacare was that people (mistakenly) saw a future where it would help themselves. They were, of course, using the 10% or so of the population as a justification.    

The whole 99% protests were pointless exercises in jealousy.  Yes, some people have certain advantages.  No life isn't fair.  However, socialism doesn't work and the redistribution of wealth is an extremely dangerous concept.  The concept of equality taken too far is a dangerous thing.   


To summarize my rambling (potentially) incoherent post... much of the movement that i am seeing in politics is the politics of jealousy (especially from the liberal side).  That is forcing a comparison to success to make people feel less successful.  That in turn prompts feelings of resentment (from jealousy).  This resentment is geared toward the horrible end game of income redistribution.  Unfortunately, a step along the way is the continued vote buying schemes of politicians who want to use the money of the successful to buy the votes (in perpetuity) of the jealous.