Like most newspapermen, I'm into being for the underdog, so today I'd like to defend the wealthy.
What exactly have they done to earn the burning hatred the left holds for them?
Multimillionaire Hillary Clinton vows to punish the rich for their success, while socialist Bernie Sanders castigates “Wall Street” continually.
The terrible wealthy produce most of the jobs in the country and most of the money that runs the federal government. One might think they would earn some gratitude for liberals who worship government. Instead, liberals complain that the wealthy do not pay their “fair share.”
As someone once asked, “Exactly what portion of what I have earned IS your fair share”?
What the wealthy haven't done is take money from anyone else against their will. No business can deprive you of your life, liberty or property. Only government can do that.
Clinton, we should note, has spent her entire life in public “service” and is worth about $200 million, so her sacrifice has not been completely in vain.
Sanders says he wants at least 90 percent of what the rich earn. (The government will define “rich” as it pleases, as it does “poor.” Useful to have that power.)
Years ago, while patrolling the courthouse halls in Jacksonville one November day, I ran into a lawyer I knew and asked if he had any interesting cases in the works.
He informed me that he wasn't taking any cases the rest of the year. When I asked why, he said that based on what he had earned to date the government was taking 70 cents of every dollar he earned, so there was no point in working once he passed the margin.
Around the same time I was interviewing a politician who explained to me that businesses don't pay taxes. They merely collect them for the government.
Both these guys, incidentally, were Democrats.
At any rate, the jihad against the wealthy has the full support and approval of the liberal media.
They always frame their editorials-disguised-as-news stories in a way to make it appear that the poor are poor because the rich are rich.
The late, great Margaret Thatcher once said that liberals would prefer to make the rich poor than make the poor rich. So also noted that the problem with socialist ideas is that eventually you run out of other people's money.
With the acknowledged national debt topping $18 trillion and rising, it appears that her point may be demonstrated in the not-too-distant future.
Florida is home to a large population of liberals, many of whom retired to Florida with comfortable bank accounts.
Americans for Tax Reform said Florida, which has no income tax, was the greatest recipient of new wealth of any other state in the nation in 2013. More than 74,000 new residents brought with them $8.34 billion to spend in the Sunshine State.
Seems like liberal politicians are not opposed to getting their “fair share” of that money, despite their vaunted disdain for earthly goods.
Lloyd Brown was in the newspaper business nearly 50 years, beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. After retirement he served as a policy analyst for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
