Middle Class Responsibility

There's been a lot of political talk about how the middle class needs help, and about where that help should come from.

The Left seems to believe that money should be taken in the form of taxes from corporations and the rich (defined as those earning $250K/year or more) and given to the less fortunate middle class (in the form of a tax cut).

As a member of the middle class, its hard not to be at least a bit enthusiastic about the prospect of such a proposed arrangement. Afterall, what do those greedy bastards need all that money for?

If we're going to adopt this sort of reasoning, its only fair to evaluate what we middle classers need that money for too.

It might be nice to have a new car, but I don't really need it. It might be nice to plan to send kids to a private university, but I learned plenty at relatively low-cost state institutions. I'm a bit overweight and so, if anything it might actually be good for me to eat out less. It might be nice to have a less run-down house, but moving would be a major pain and we have way more than adequate shelter already. If I were one of the idiots that bought a house I couldn't afford, it might be nice to not have to move, but that kind-of takes the incentive out of not being an idiot - is this something that we as a nation can afford?

On the topic of incentive, what message would redistribution send to greedy corporations and the rich bastards? If I were rich or the greedy leader of an amoral corporation, I'd be thinking about where I could go and keep more of what is mine or my organization's. Redistribution would tend to drive the successful (and all that ill-gotten money) out of the country. We, the middle class would be left, and our nation, on average would become poorer.

Maybe this increased poverty would result in the middle class being viewed as relatively rich. And then the redistribution cycle could turn again, only the next time the not-so-poor would become the target of the really impoverished.

This idiotic idea that wealth can be "redistributed" without degrading the nation as a whole is so superficial that I cannot imagine how half a nation of relatively well-educated citizens can't immediately see right through it. Any leader promiting this type of plan must be either stupid, or dishonest. I'm leaning toward dishonest. Dishonesty in this case is irresponsible (and down right dangerous).