Today while taking a page out of Hugo Chavez’s book, Laura Ingraham accused Obama of being the devil for wanting to close loopholes and tax the rich.
Ingraham opined, Obama shouldn’t be condemning those who in her words, are “hard-working, ambitious, innovating,” and “work their buns off.”
Ingraham is advancing a classic Ayn Rand objective attitude. She assumes that wealthy people achieved their wealth because they are harder workers and smarter than the rest of us. What Ingraham fails to understand is that wealth is generational. According to Dr.Michael Zweig, professor at Stoneybrook, the number one determining factor of where someone will be when they are an adult is where their parents were when they entered adulthood. The United States of America is #10 in upward mobility.
My friend Jeff Howard reminded me of something I neglected to mention. Ingraham draws a line between being productive and wealthy. In other words, the free market rewards people who are productive, and pays them what they are worth. If this is so, how does Laura explain CEO pay. How is Angelo Mozzillo worth hundreds of millions of dollars when Countrywide Mortgage went bankrupt? How is Franklin Raines by any means a productive CEO- or Carly Fiorino, for that matter. CEOs in other countries are being paid 3 to 5 times less than CEOs in America. Obviously, there is nothing to support the notion that a CEO’s pay is related to productivity. Rather, a CEO’s pay is determined by a board of people who were appointed by the CEO. Shareholders do not have the ability to determine CEO pay.
Furthermore, Americans are the hardest working people on the face of the earth. We work more hours than anybody. We have less vacation time. In fact, vacation time is not guaranteed to our workers. If hard work led to being rich, we wouldn’t have so few rich people in America.
Ingraham further goes on to say: “We have a spending addiction in Washington which is why this idea of taxing the rich, the people who are ‘most fortunate’, as if the money just fell into the laps of most of the people who are the so-called wealthy, as if they didn’t work a day for their money! They’re just ‘fortunate’…the money that is going to be sent to Washington in the form of higher taxes is going to be spent, my friend. It’s not going to be used to pay down our debt.”
Ingraham is completely uninformed here. First of all, discretionary spending has remained the same since 2001. What’s changed is defense spending and tax revenue. Revenue is down 21% since 2001. It doesn’t take a smart person to figure out that if we keep cutting taxes and increasing our defense spending, we’re going to have deficits. In fact, if we continue the devasting Bush tax cuts, 50 % of our deficit by 2017 will be from the tax cuts. It’s obvious that the low taxes we have is a major contributor to our deficit. 3 Republicans account for 80% of our debt. What did these 3 presidents do: Cut taxes for the wealthy, increase defense spending, and deregualate.
(I have to run now; I’m interviewing someone. I’ll be back with more details.)
Besides the fact you’re an idiot for believing most people of means were born that way, thereby completely denying the American dream even exists, you really need to learn the difference between the words, “then” and “than.” They really aren’t interchangeable, you know. Of course, if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you WOULD know that, right?
I could start a blog that slurs Ed Schultz and post things out of context but it isn’t worth the waste of my time.
Nothing out of context here. L.I. is a piece of shit.
Terry,
Forgive me if I made a few grammar mistakes. I was in a rush to interview someone. I will be the first to admit that I am not the best writer. Having said that, my points still stand. There is almost no upward mobility anymore. Sure, you have a chance to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, but the Zuckerbergs are extremely rare in America. The economy now is vastly different than was the case when my parents grew up. (Both deceased)
Your girl Laura grew up in one of the richest towns in Connecticut. She made 7 million dollars in 2010. She’s defending the rich because that’s all she can relate to. She can’t tell you that she is openly advocating for the rich because then you wouldn’t listen to her radio show and believe one day too you could be a millionaire.
I would argue that the American dream has changed. Thanks to Ronald Reagan, the right-wing think tanks, and the media, the American dream is to be like Gordon Gecko. It’s pretty sad.
The American dream is not dead , on life support perhaps, but not dead. The wages of average working people have remained the same since the 1980′s while CEO and executive pay has risen by 500%, Ingraham is a child of her class and will never out grow it I was born in one of the poorest sections of Philadelphia and I have a Masters degree and I am in a good profession that makes me a lot of money , we can make it if we try , but many people need a helping hand that is what Government is for .not a hand out a helping hand
You have regard for the plight of the poor partially because of your upbringing. Ingraham has been financed by the right-wing for years. She’s never seen a student loan bill. Both her and D’Souza had their education paid for by the right-wing infastructure that is destroying our society today.
Admin, I agree with what Abraham Lincoln said ” It is the duty of the government to do for the people what they can not do for themselves” he said that in 1863 when I think he might of had something else on his mind.
Actually, you are partially correct in that “wealth is generational” as parental good habits and entrepreneurial skill are often past to the next generation; just as my father taught me to work very hard by his example from surviving the Great Depression. There are obvious exceptions within families, but generally the runts end up with less while the fast learners succeed by good examples set early in life. It’s one reason why boys need strong dad’s and strong mom’s in their lives early and often. As for “hard work”, it is your friend Obama who is complaining about us becoming “soft”.
Oh Please! The wealth in this country is generated by the middle class and some of the lower class which being redistributed to the upper class. As for LI her show is not even in the top 10 markets (affiliates) – I have been in radio 35 yrs and it is having a radio show in the the top 10 markets – not the # of affiliates that counts. She is only making big money because she’s kissing O’Reilly’s ass these days.
As for hard work being what creates wealth is total BS. Most of the wealth is inherited in this country – not earned. Yes! guys like Mark Zuckerberg are the rare few who made it – smart guy with a vision – but it was also pure luck.
I worked for a major radio company 20 years ago and when the owner who retired left his 2 sons inherited the company and became instantly wealthy as a result. Those sons were absolutely useless and lacked any ambition. They spent more time screwing around on the golf course and jet-setting – the company eventually went belly up in 3 years. Why? Because they did not build up the company from scratch like their father – they had it handed to them on a silver platter. His sons are basically the same as other ingrates that are ruining their family fortunes and destroying companies for a good time and a quick buck. Everyone wants instant wealth and is not willing to work hard and wait patiently for it to come. Real businessmen like Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie were the old captains of industry who were just the type that were very hard working, patient and thrifty. Not like todays executives who would rather snort coke off a hookers tits or goof off burning up company funds for a weekend of fun. But, they always make it up by laying off people, instead actually spending long hours working to improve their businesses and/or products.
To build wealth takes 1/10 hard work and 9/10 pure luck. Sorry but that is the awful truth.
Do you still work in radio?