Teabagging
According to the news, conservative activists teabagged all day today in various places around the US. They were protesting high taxes, government takeovers of industry, and modernity generally. (I know, it is difficult to imagine that the folks running communications on this did not realize what fun people would have with such an obvious sexual idiom. But they didn't and -- perdictably -- fun was had.)
I really don't get the tax stuff. The US has the lowest marginal tax rates of any country in the world. US citizens are now taxed less than they ever have been in the history of the United States. If President Obama has his way, only the wealthiest Americans will have their taxes raised by about 1.4%. While our marginal corporate rate is h 37%, the effective corporate rate is about 12% -- incredibly low. And each year the financial press proudly gives us the names of all the Fortune 500 companies who successfully avoided all taxes.
As to "big government," our government is involved in a lot less than our peer countries. We regulate less. We do not provide healthcare. We provide only a second rate education system. Besides the Department of Defense, I am not sure what is so "big" about or government. Moreover, in the last few months our government has been doling out money in an effort to prop up private enterprises, in effect allowing them to socialize their losses and privatize their gains. This hardly seems to be the work of some socialist in waiting.
As to modernity, I like to think our culture wars are starting to simmer down and that the sundry anti abortionists, anti stem cell research -ists, anti civil rights-ists are properly finding their place on the very margins of society, where they can talk to themsleves, hate the rest of us, and if the Department of Homeland Security is right, stock up on ammo.
Its odd. Through the 70s and 80s, left wing activists were typically characterized as pampered whiners who wanted to blame the government for their problems and create a culture of victims. Boy has that ship sailed...
I really don't get the tax stuff. The US has the lowest marginal tax rates of any country in the world. US citizens are now taxed less than they ever have been in the history of the United States. If President Obama has his way, only the wealthiest Americans will have their taxes raised by about 1.4%. While our marginal corporate rate is h 37%, the effective corporate rate is about 12% -- incredibly low. And each year the financial press proudly gives us the names of all the Fortune 500 companies who successfully avoided all taxes.
As to "big government," our government is involved in a lot less than our peer countries. We regulate less. We do not provide healthcare. We provide only a second rate education system. Besides the Department of Defense, I am not sure what is so "big" about or government. Moreover, in the last few months our government has been doling out money in an effort to prop up private enterprises, in effect allowing them to socialize their losses and privatize their gains. This hardly seems to be the work of some socialist in waiting.
As to modernity, I like to think our culture wars are starting to simmer down and that the sundry anti abortionists, anti stem cell research -ists, anti civil rights-ists are properly finding their place on the very margins of society, where they can talk to themsleves, hate the rest of us, and if the Department of Homeland Security is right, stock up on ammo.
Its odd. Through the 70s and 80s, left wing activists were typically characterized as pampered whiners who wanted to blame the government for their problems and create a culture of victims. Boy has that ship sailed...
posted by Jack Reed at 5:02 PM
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