Bernie Sanders—Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?
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Bernie loves to talk about “millionaires” and he’s tweeting out that today is the day that “millionaires” stop paying into Social Security because we hate the bourgeoisie as much as we love people who make a whole lot of money singing and hitting balls and hitting each other: our Ferrari driving celebrity corps. Let them be rich, it’s all right. Money for nothing, get your checks for free as the song goes – money for nothing.
Bernie is waving the Progressive flag now, saying it’s time “Millionaires” paid Social Security tax and all their income – something designed to appeal to those who think the really rich get paychecks and that having a million bucks makes you anywhere near financially independent. If you have ever filed your own taxes, you know that if you do earn above a certain amount, the IRS taxes your benefits, but does Bernie know?
Does he want to tax, for instance, those long-term Capital Gains that show up in a mutual fund statement that get plowed back? what if you make money selling your house for whatever reason? Should the IRS tax your student loan forgiveness as ordinary income subject to withholding? Does he want you to pay Social Security tax on dividends you earn from securities you own? Is he confusing wealth with income – because many quite wealthy people don’t have high incomes any more than they carry lunchboxes. I’m tempted to believe some of the loudest men on the soapbox learned economics from Scrooge McDuck and Richie Rich comic books—or Das Kapital, for all I know.
There was a photo of empty store shelves showing up on the Facebook pages yesterday telling us the failure of the unregulated Texas power grid showed that Capitalism only works on paper and has been a failure. Is this utter ignorance, profound stupidity, or Russian propaganda? I used to hear the same language on Radio Moscow 60 years ago. It was popular in the 1930s. just before the world’s largest economic expansion in Capitalist countries.
Bernie himself is a millionaire, as “men of the people” often are, although his exact net worth is disputed. Just thought I would throw that in.
I mean, I do like Bernie. He’s an amusing guy, but I’m tired of the resurgence of the Marxist narrative and its failed historical imperatives. I’m tired of the playing to jealousy and false economic theory and class struggle. Most of all I’m tired of hearing from howling Progressives absolutely unconcerned that Corrupt authoritarianism is marching down the street and democratic institutions are collapsing and armed militias are arming and rearming while demanding more benefits, more money, and right now.
I’m sorry, your student loan bailout and free tuition can come later. You’re throwing uncompromising tantrums about what you want your country to do for you and not doing much more than crying for more while refusing to help get the Republican boot off our necks.
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I recently read about a small liberal arts college, Smith College, whose annual tuition was $78,000. I may be wrong but I sincerely doubt that there is any part of their curriculum that is worth that much money compared to a public college. Actually, that is $30,000 more per year than Harvard which is more about snobbery than it is about education.
I was lucky because my company reimbursed us for our tuition, based on a merit program. So if you had good evaluations and the boss liked you then you could qualify for TR. I was a suck-up but it saved me a fortune.
In my day, and it was a long time ago, even a private college didn’t cost as much as it does now. I don’t remember that any classmates were borrowing to get through. I certainly support efforts to reduce the cost at state institutions as much as possible and especially for in-state students. I see it as an investment in infrastructure.
And yes, more employers should consider tuition reimbursement!
Glenn, I do agree with you but I also get miffed at people like Trump and those like him whose incomes range in the hundreds of millions, or even billions per year and they are constantly creating new dodges to avoid paying taxes. This of course does not apply to all rich people, but it does apply to a number of them. I don’t worry about myself so much because I am neither rich nor poor, but I do worry about the truly poor individuals in this country. The problem of course is the corruption within the various system which tend to be run by those who are at the top financially speaking. For example, there is no reason why this country should not have a first-class education system for every child in this country as well as health care. It is not that there is not enough money to have them, it is because of the distribution system and those who control those systems. I do not begrudge those who make a million, or even a billion dollars per year. But there is a point at which a person has earned enough to live their lifestyle as they wish, and the rest goes into a fund to make life better for others. But, as I said, those that run that fund are corrupt and dish out money for less altruistic motives. It does bother me that children go hungry or without sufficient medical care in this country. But, then again, we have corruption on both ends of the economic spectrum and that is the one thing that Bernie never addresses.
It’s not only taxes he evades. He doesn’t pay loans or debts, but the way the word “millionaire” is being used in such an out of date fashion is my beef. It’s several orders of magnitude short of being anything like a billionaire. Living in South Florida one is always reminded not to feel smug if you live well. Got a nice house – the guy down the road just put his up for $39 million and his 200 foot yacht has a helipad and a helicopter to go with it and he uses it to travel to his private golf course 5 miles away. It makes me smile, but being a sports figure, he didn’t steal his money and I don’t begrudge him. Why should I?
But what really gets to me are the politicians playing on jealousy and class hatred. It’s been done elsewhere with disastrous results. It doesn’t ever help the poor, in my opinion. Greed is greed.
I personally do not agree that greed is good, at least to the point where it denies others basic needs. I believe that one is entitled to live as well as his or her allow them to do so. Most of those who are that wealthy, especially the athletes, give a lot back to society. But then you have those like Trump and some of his financial supporters who would prefer to bleed green blood if it were possible. Trump, for example, has no appreciation for what he has in this country. He believes he is entitled to anything and everything he desires. Of course, he did not really earn his money, his daddy did. Perhaps I am just jealous because he has always had access to money and I did not, but then I got to a point where I am comfortable and that’s good enough. Growing up poor made me appreciate my life more than he appears to appreciate his. Like a lot of people, I could have earned more money but not within the life I chose to live. Still, I do feel for those who are truly trapped in poverty with little hope of climbing out
If student loan forgiveness ever happened, there would be millions of grads and post-grads who would be slightly miffed. The reason for being miffed is they paid off their loans, and worked throughout their university years, mainly to keep borrowing to a minimum. The scammy education for profit Universities are experts at loading their students with debt they can never pay back. Even regular Universities, turn a blind eye to unscrupulous lending of ridiculous amounts.
You make good points. I will continue paying the University of Alabama, through the federal loan program. I don’t resent it, I just wish I didn’t have to do it.
The only ‘Progressive’ idea I wanted to see happen is the student loan forgiveness hope. Education isn’t cheap, and I’ve got a lot of it. I knew, going in, that eventually, these loans would fall due, and they did, years ago. I joke that I’ll never pay off my student loans, and that’s a fact. So, the ONE thing I wanted isn’t happening. Sigh…