Class warfare

One of the Reasons that the Roman government and Roman civilization lasted so long was that they actively protected the property owners. In other words, they protected the revenue generating part of the population. This ensured that the government continued to receive income from the productive parts of the economy. The primary reason for the fall of the Western Empire in the middle of the 5th century was the loss of so much of the productive parts of the empire. The United States is not protecting this ‘class’ of people. For the past few generations, the United States has been doing the opposite.

A comment was made on this blog that Paul Ryan started the talk about ‘class warfare’. That discussion had actually begun long before then. An example: The capital gains tax was imposed to tax those people who owned stock but did not pay taxes on their gains when they sold. Back in the 1950’s only ‘rich’ people owned stock. The ‘talk’ may not have been about ‘class warfare’ but the actions were. President Obama is not just talking about it. He is actually DOING it. He believes that discriminating against the wealthy in this country is just and desirable. His actions demonstrate the degree of his belief in this concept. Just look at the ‘stimulus’ and taxes that he has and is proposing. This is not idle talk. The best part is that it is politically beneficial.

With the economy not doing so well and the instability in Europe that may be spreading throughout the world, President Obama needs something to talk about. He can’t run for re-election on how well the accomplishments that have been made on his watch are working out. So he needs a whipping boy. China is a great overseas target. (With plenty of justification) But internally, President Obama needs a group to pick on.

It is a natural tendency to be envious of others who have what you do not. Particularly if you are struggling as so many are in this country today. President Obama feels that we Americans have been ‘soft’ these past few decades and need to toughen up. So let’s go get those greedy ‘rich’ people who don’t have to work to make a living and just feed off the misfortune of others. Well, maybe a lot of people agree with him. I do know that this was NOT a principal that this country was founded upon, nor did it help build the greatest economy ever built. This was a country where the streets were ‘paved with gold’ because anyone who had a desire and was willing to work hard could make something of themselves. In other words, become ‘rich’. Today, this is actively discouraged. President Obama is only following a long tendency to penalize the ‘rich’ and ‘spread the wealth around’ so that everyone is the same. This is another concept that this country was not founded upon. In fact, this is quite the opposite.