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What's a fair share?
By Ken Byler
Did you know that if you're one of those folks that has a little money in the bank, some cash in your pocket and a big jar of loose change somewhere in your house, you're amongst the Top 10 percent of planet earth's rich folks?
Should you feel guilty about it? Apparently, some in our government believe you should.
A question posed by writer George Douglas a while back is, how did we Americans, who started out a little over 200 years ago as the first people in the history of the world determined to enjoy liberty, let ourselves become one of the most over-governed people in the world?
Like the story of the Emperor's new clothes, when Barack Obama first appeared in the mists of the nation's political effluvia bent on spreading the wealth, he was wearing garments made from fabric so rare and fine they could be seen only by people with compassion for the unfortunate, superior intellect and vision. Only Bible clinging, gun toting, God-fearing yahoos recognized that he wasn't wearing a thing.
Today our government is dominated mostly by porkinistas. What's a porkinista, you might ask? It's congressmen that presumes it's their duty to line the pockets of folks in their district with money from folks that live in other districts. None of them want to downsize government. Agencies created to solve pressing problems get bigger while the pressing problem stays the same. Every crisis calls for another federal police force and another agency. Nobody at the capitol is clamoring for a smaller office and less staff or less influence to peddle. Some say our country is becoming a socialist nation. Now we have President Obama baiting one group of citizens against another with the old it's "us" against "them" ploy. He wants to be re-elected come this November and some believe the President already has the poor vote, the union vote, the black vote, the Hispanic vote, the women's vote and the gay/lesbian/transgender vote sewed up. So I'm presuming the "them" that "us" is against is rich, straight white guys.
It was writer H.L. Mencken that said a demagogue is "one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots." The President will lose a lot of those votes thought to be sewed up if spending is cut. So a lot of folks have been convinced the federal government can spend us out of the mess we're in if the rich will pay their "fair share". The idea is to load the burden unto rich folks and then keep moving the designation of rich to lower levels on the income scale.
A lot of America's middle class are in the Top 10 percent income bracket. The percentage of income taxes paid by folks in that bracket is illustrated best by an analogy that uses beer as government services and a bartender as elected government officials.
The analogy goes this way: Ten men go out to a tavern for a beer and each man drinks one beer. The total bar bill is $100. Though each man drank $10 worth of beer it's decided by the bartender that the bar bill will be paid based on each mans wages. Four men pay nothing toward the bar bill. The fifth man pays $1 and the sixth man pays $3. The seventh pays $7 and the eighth pays $12. The ninth man pays $18 and the tenth man pays $59.
That is exactly the way the income tax brackets are set up. "From each according to his means" is, I believe, the way the saying goes.
Those running for elected office need to quit pretending the coming election is about saving America from socialism. With progressive income tax brackets, half the workforce in tax-supported jobs and nearly 70 million citizens receiving some kind of federal government assistance, Americans have already embraced socialism. And it appears that we're not about to give it up. I know I'm not sending my Social Security check back to Washington, and if it hadn't been for Medicare I would have croaked a while back.
It's only my opinion, but I believe the coming election is about saving America from a dictatorship.
Ken Byler is a Star Columnist, author and artist. Email him at kbyler@tx.rr.com.
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