Eat the rich? Sorry, but I don't think so

Eat the rich? Sorry, but I don't think so

ATLANTA
November 20, 1998

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most of us here at Georgia Tech will go on to successful careers. And, with proper planning and shrewd investment, we may be able to retire earlier, own a fabulous car or a house, put our kids through school, and enjoy luxuries our parents only dreamed about.

What you may not realize, though, is that we will also become something else: We'll become a political tool of jealous, anti-achievement leftists in this country. Liberals will point to us and make us a target of their loathing and derision.

More importantly, they'll want our money.

Listen to those 10-second sound bites coming from Congress any time its members discuss tax cuts. You'll hear things like, "The rich don't pay enough taxes!" or "Let's make the rich pay their fair share!" It's the classic argument. Ever the champions of logical thought, liberals use such feel-good, politically correct, class-warfare catchphrases as "the less fortunate" to set the poor against the rich. Richard Gephardt once referred to wealthy people as those who have "won life's lottery;" former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich used to call the top 20 percent of income earners "the fortunate fifth."

It's all part of an effort to demonize the achievers in this country. Just look at the term "filthy rich." It suggests that the rich came upon their wealth through underhanded, perhaps illegal, means. By dehumanizing the rich and cheapening their success, liberals are able to justify laying claim to their wealth.

"It's not your fault you're poor," they say. "You're just unlucky. Look at that guy over there. That rich slob. Hey, if you vote for me, I'll make sure he gets what he deserves. I'll also make sure that you get what you're entitled to."

Why is this strategy succeeding?

It's working, in part, because when elections roll around every couple of years, it's the successful who are working their rear ends off at their jobs, and the unsuccessful leeches of society who are able to get to their local polling center to cast their vote.

It's also working because class-warfare politicians know exactly what gets their constituents to the polls: Money. Trust me, if you get the government to pour buckets of money into social programs for your district, you'd better believe your constituents are going to give you a thank-you note when they step into the voting booth.

At the core, it's working because a lot of us don't like to shoulder any more responsibility than we have to. If you're a high-school dropout, living from paycheck to paycheck working at the local fast-food joint and don't have a dime saved for your (hah!) retirement, why bother to blame your own bad choices when you can blame someone else? Those nasty rich people. They're playing around with money that ought to be yours. Let's get them to pay their fair share.

The rich are already paying their fair share. In fact, they're paying far more than what could be remotely described as "fair." Get this: The top one percent of income earners in this country earns about 14 percent of the income, but pays a whopping 29 percent of the taxes collected. Expand the horizon a little bit and you'll see that the top 10 percent of income earners make 39 percent of the income, but pay out nearly 60 percent of the taxes. Believe it or not, those numbers reflect an increase in the tax burden on the wealthy during the years of the Reagan administration.

How fair is that?

Late one night, I listened, agog, as a radio talk show host had a representative of the Democratic Socialists of America on his program. Had I not already been seated, I would certainly have toppled over when the socialist said that it was "criminal" for Michael Eisner to be earning $90,000 per hour when children across America were going to bed hungry.

When did it become a crime to achieve success in this country? Every one of us learned in grade school that it is the living embodiment of the American dream for a person to become successful through hard work and dedication. Never mind that Mr. Eisner pays a hefty sum in income taxes to the federal government, or that the money he keeps doesn't just sit in a vault somewhere and gather dust. It goes to pay his personal assistant's salary, his personal assistant's grocery bills, the grocery store employees' bills, and so on. But all some people can see is mean old Michael Eisner, sitting up there in his ivory tower, looking down and snickering at the starving children who sit outside the gate to Walt Disney World while he pulls down $90,000 every hour.

How should we outrun this anti-achievement maelstrom that threatens to pull us in?

My solution consists of but two words: ballot box. No matter how busy you are generating wealth, make it a point to get out there and vote. Use that vote to tell your elected officials that you're tired of being made a pawn of the political left.

Tell them success isn't a dirty word.

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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