Andy - I take back all of the laughs that I have had at your expense in the "twigs and berries" thread... props to you, sir!
steveh - while I believe that I get what you are saying - there are a LOT of people who use the same exact tactic to try to guilt me into paying my "fair share". When all they want is more of my earnings, and neither know nor care what I already give. The rhetoric used by such folks is off the hook - surely you can agree to that? So yes I feel blessed, and yes I donate a ton of it to help those in need. And yes even the "working class" and the poor in America are better off than a lot of other places in the world.
Put it all together and there's a lesson or two in this:
1) We should be grateful and help all that we can (VOLUNTARILY)
2) We are better off than just about anyone in the world.
3) When people like us are asked to change our system to emulate other places' governmental systems, it's a fair question to ask why the heck we should - since our system has created so much more wealth ACROSS our entire population.
4) How do the people that gripe and moan about a "living wage/higher minimum wage" square with this? Since someone making minimum wage in our country is in the top 5%!
It appears to me that this is a liberal guilt trip that can directly be flipped to support a fiscal conservative argument!
"For 'tis sport to see the engineer hoist on his own petard..."
steveh - while I believe that I get what you are saying - there are a LOT of people who use the same exact tactic to try to guilt me into paying my "fair share". When all they want is more of my earnings, and neither know nor care what I already give. The rhetoric used by such folks is off the hook - surely you can agree to that? So yes I feel blessed, and yes I donate a ton of it to help those in need. And yes even the "working class" and the poor in America are better off than a lot of other places in the world.
Put it all together and there's a lesson or two in this:
1) We should be grateful and help all that we can (VOLUNTARILY)
2) We are better off than just about anyone in the world.
3) When people like us are asked to change our system to emulate other places' governmental systems, it's a fair question to ask why the heck we should - since our system has created so much more wealth ACROSS our entire population.
4) How do the people that gripe and moan about a "living wage/higher minimum wage" square with this? Since someone making minimum wage in our country is in the top 5%!
It appears to me that this is a liberal guilt trip that can directly be flipped to support a fiscal conservative argument!
"For 'tis sport to see the engineer hoist on his own petard..."
