It's the Evil Rich? {sigh}

During the weeks it took for many of my FaceBook friends to get their power back after Hurricane Sandy, I was relieved to see that some of them had purchased generators so they could continue to reside in their homes. 

Enter Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times op-ed section and his article "A Failed Experiment." Apparently, use of private generators is part of an evil plot on the part of the wealthy to create workarounds on the backs of the rest of the public. (I wonder if my liberal friends in the Northeast realize that they've just become part of the evil rich?)

Apparently, it hasn't occurred to him that towns, counties and states are lagging in the revenue they need to support their services, not because of tax cuts for the "wealthy," but because of the dire state of the economy where tens of millions of people are unemployed, under-employed or have been forced into early retirement, leaving no income or too little income to tax. And homes are being abandoned for foreclosure, because they can't be sold for a decent price, so property taxes are not being paid. We all know that we can't tax our way out of this. Even if you tax the evil rich 100% of their income, it wouldn't even come close.

I'll say this about Mr. Kristof: I know nothing about him, but from the tone of his writing, I believe he means well. He doesn't seem to be the type of Democrat with a hidden agenda. He seems to be an ivory-tower liberal that espouses all the ideals that allow folks like him, my mother and the somehow-not-so-evil-rich celebrities on the left coast to puff up their chests and feel good when they look in the mirror. I do believe his heart is in the right place, but I also believe he's misguided. He's fallen in love with the way of life in Europe and the Middle East as only someone who can come home to the sanity of the United States can do. And what makes this type dangerous is that they set themselves up as pawns for Democrat politicians whose motives may not be quite so pure.

I may have said it before, but if not I'll say it now. There are politicians and "community organizers" (code for those who make their livings by exploiting minorities) out there who pretend to be working for the poor/"underprivileged"/disenfranchised/etc., but whose real goal in life seems to be punishment of anyone who has achieved something. The tax on the rich is not to benefit the poor...it's revenge. The true beneficiaries of all this class warfare are the purveyors of said class warfare—the liberal political class.

But when they go after the wealthy, they always seem to forget that if someone is that wealthy, they have the means to take that wealth and relocate to somewhere else where it won't be confiscated for the benefit of someone who hasn't earned it. That's a component of socialism, folks. And to quote Margaret Thatcher, "Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people's money." They also forget that money not gained by your own labor is neither appreciated or spent wisely. Punishing the rich will not truly benefit the poor. 

Taxing the rich is not the solution. Food stamp EBT cards and free phones are not the answer. Back-to-back years of unemployment benefits are not the answer. Giving people anything is not the answer...fish, for example. I'm no Biblical scholar, but it doesn't take either a scholar or a Christian to understand the concept that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Here in the South, we like sugar and sweetness. Our sweet tea is like syrup and  so are our disparaging remarks. So, in closing, all I can think to say about Mr. Kristof is bless his heart...