What the wealthy really need to understand is this:

[scheming daemons]

An open letter to the wealthy in this country:


The "social safety net" in this country is the one thing that keeps the U.S. from having its very own Bastille Day.

Take away Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Food Stamps, etc.... and nothing will protect you wealthy fat cats. Nothing.

Human history is full of wealthy losing their heads when the oppression became too great. Ask Marie Antoinette. Ask the Romanovs.

Your higher taxes are the fee you pay to have a society where the masses don't forceably overrun your estates and take what you have.

You can buy all the "security" you want. You're outnumbered 99-to-1. This society has been very, very good to you. Your higher taxes are your "user fee".

They're also your protection money.



And another thing.... after the events of 2008... Barack Obama is the one thing standing between you guys and the pitchfork-bearing masses that want your heads on a platter. You might want to be a little nicer to him.

[bluestateguy]

1. Obama won 52% from voters making over $200,000

They get it.

So your message is rightly directed to the other 48% who do not.

Citation: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#USP00p1

[lonestarnot]

4. Richie riches get nothing but the shits on a loss.

[handmade34]

2. actually I wish the "less rich"

would have a better understanding of this. The wealthy are wealthy because of the "poor" and the masses have as much power as they will take... unfortunately we don't choose to accept it often enough...

[bluestateguy]

3. I think its often the people who are somewhere between rich and upper middle class

They are the real social climbers, and I am inclined to think they have the biggest attitude problem of all. The very very very rich likely don't give a shit about a couple percent increase in their taxes.

[glitch]

8. Tell that to Pete Peterson. Or the Koch brothers. Or Scaife. Or Rupert Murdoch.

Ew. My post is making me a little sick.

[customerserviceguy]

5. Your examples are from old monarchies

Do you have any from fairly modern democracies? It's far easier to control people when you give them a false sense of having a bit of power.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. The Depression of the 1930s is an example of this.

Some say FDR saved capitalism by creating the WPA and other social programs -- consider that in those days, the Communist and Socialist parties were starting to become more popular because they advocated for the poor and the working class. Had it not been for the government programs that FDR promoted, the masses of desperate unemployed people might have resorted to revolution, and who knows? Maybe those wealthy captains of industry might have ended up like Czar Nicholas?

[unkachuck]

7. "...nothing will protect you wealthy fat cats. Nothing."

....and if you should run off with our wealth to distant foreign lands, we'll send our drones with Hellfire missiles to hunt you down like the dogs you are....seriously!

....no more sipping martinis in Swiss chalets; we're gonna stomp your balls....

[guitar man]

9. Exactly

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." John F. Kennedy

[WillowTree]

10. Charming.