I have a terrible habit of responding to cynics. “They’re ALL criminals” … they will say, whether we’re talking about Corporations or Politicians, in fact I often wonder who they respect. So before this becomes another cynical rant “against the machine” I would like to mention a few people I respect. Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Michele Bachmann to name a few. I believe them to be principled people who are sincerely attempting to do the right thing in a difficult environment. I highly respect George Bush, and have written before how I was shocked by his election and further by his re-election. I don’t expect Bachmann to become the nominee. I meddle enough in this environment to know how much hate there is for religious folks like her. At least among the outspoken. I did mention I was surprised that Bush got elected, didn’t I? I’m getting the suspicion that the “outspoken” are not necessarily the majority.

It’s no surprise then, that I am a staunch conservative. My personal “check and balance” is to search diligently for liberals I respect. Just this evening I heard Bill Clinton speaking about the economy and foreign policy and was impressed. Perhaps it’s the fact that he’s not actively campaigning that makes him suddenly make sense? As we know politicians are natural campaigners, and cannot stop in this environment without risking their jobs. The most recent “payroll tax” debacle is an example IMO. The conservatives have put their heads on a block. Even among their “base” this was not a popular move, but they did it anyway. It’s what I like about them. We all know taxes must go up, if the first round of cuts under Bush were unsustainable (as campaigning democrats everywhere were quick to proclaim) then the extensions pushed through by Obama last year and the further cuts being proposed now are the equivalent of paying a credit card bill with another credit card. Just irresponsible. If you are not aware, the major addition under Obama was the Social Security revenue cut. He basically looked at our already failing Social Security system and cut out roughly 15% of its funding as a “gift” to us, his people. A thank you card at the expense of a more expedited insolvency of our Social Security system. So long as it doesn’t go bankrupt on his watch, who’d notice? Why couldn’t we just cut the income tax rate I wonder?

Anyway, back to my point about cynics. They, we, they… I’m still undecided on what I am exactly… Cynics have a peripheral blindness to opposing extremes. They can rant on about one side of an argument, and sometimes can even switch to the other side, but cannot find their way to the middle without throwing their hands up in the air and crying: “The sky is falling!” They will focus on “corporate control of the government” and completely miss the massive portions of our national debt directly attributable to unsustainable entitlement programs for the “poor” (the definition of which is as mysterious (and infinite) as the cosmos). It is not as simple as “the Rich” vs. the Middle Class, it’s more like the middle class are the rope in a tug-of-war between vote buying schemes targeted at either the poor or the rich, not one or the other, both in varying degrees at different times. Cynical “philosophers” create a “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t” atmosphere … and yet I find it irresistible to respond. I never miss a chance to attempt to move what appears to be immovable. The hopelessness of a cynic.

“So the 400 richest Americans, whose total wealth exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 150 million Americans put together, pay an average of 17 percent of their income in taxes.”

That quote has been floating around the internet like a viral spam email about Bill Gates giving away free trips to Disney World. Just like the spam email, this quote has several key signs that it is not likely trustworthy. A major red flag being the word: “wealth”. You see, in the case of the spam email, one expects mention of a drawing, the odds would be disclosed, that there would be 1 chance in a billion or something equally astronomical. The email states clearly: “email this to 5 of your friends and you will get a free trip”. It’s missing something that a legitimate offer would have. In the case of the quote above a legitimate quote would not use an ambiguous word like “wealth”, why do that? Be consistent and use a word like income. After all, it is “income” in the last half, why not the first half? It’s a flagrant apples-and-oranges spin doctoring.

The author of the quote is attempting to make a profound (and viral) statement about the inequality of a capitalistic system. Conveniently ignoring the fact that the disparity in other types of societies (using the same logic) is even worse. Conveniently planting the word “wealth” in a place where a rather large percentage of the intended audience would just assume it were a synonym for “income”. It is designed to deceive.

To you “sky is falling” cynics (and the man in the mirror) … Wealth is an ambiguous term. If you see a quote like this that does not include a definition for the word “wealth” you’d be better off if you never read it. 150 million Americans is roughly half of the population of the country. Of which what percent are children? … As if that weren’t enough of a problem, if you dig further I’d wager (not $10,000) that you’d discover that some of those poor, poor, 150 million oppressed Americans live in million dollar homes. How? Well, because they owe someone money for that home, therefore not only is their “wealth” very low, it may even be a NEGATIVE NUMBER that further drags down the whole group. At least by the massaged definition being used in the example of the above quote.

In trying to grasp the formula at work here I was led to consider a liberal bastion of irreproachable conduct: Steve Jobs. The man was by all accounts “wealthy” yet his income was miniscule. All part of a game that campaigners across the political spectrum speak about vaguely as though we are too ignorant to comprehend it. The creation of wealth. Of course, he was a capitalist, but being the Zeus of liberal mythology he must never be referred to as a pig. So what about all of that “wealth” now that he is gone? Do his wife and 4 children get one big check or what? Well, doubtlessly there is cash there, and doubtlessly they will get some money, but as far as the “wealth” is concerned that vast majority is tied up in ways that they couldn’t get to in their lifetime. You see, despite what spin doctors would have you believe about tax codes that favor the rich, if they ever convert their “wealth” into cash they get taxed through the nose! In fact, even the capital gains tax that is spoken about so tauntingly, being “only” 15% for rich folks, is 0% for the not-so-rich! They left that part out, because it doesn’t help their cause. To rally the poor against the rich for votes. As they’ve already made too clear there are very few “mega-rich” voters. In fact, the definition of “rich” can be tweaked for every audience to catch as many undecided votes as possible. The term “class warfare” is not just a good sound bite, it is an accurate characterization of the tug-of-war we, the middle class, are experiencing.

One unique thing about wealth is the difficult to comprehend possibility that it is not finite. People like Steve Jobs actually create wealth. They don’t just take it from poor people, they literally create it. Despite the actions of the federal reserve the supply of money will always be finite. Even the printing presses have a limit to how fast they can produce pieces of paper with numbers stamped on them, however the potential of wealth is infinite. Ideas make markets and markets employee people who then use their pieces of paper to gain access to implementations of the ideas. Wealthy people have their wealth tied up in creating more wealth. Wealth that later spreads through the system. I’m not talking about risky investment decisions in ones 401k. I’m talking about investing in ideas. Those super wealthy folks are the ones that lose when the ideas fail to generate more wealth and we all win when they do. Destroying wealth demonstrably comes at the hands of ideological philosophies, like socialism, that put all of society’s eggs in the innate goodness of man “basket”. In such a society, where power comes without competence, wealth is the casualty and poverty the result.

Finally, most of those “capitalistic pigs” are workaholics and many make drastic tradeoffs to generate wealth. Ironically they tend to be relatively frugal folks too. Since they are too busy creating wealth to be bothered with cashing it out (and then paying taxes) to spend on themselves. We’re not talking about bank accounts full of money as the misconception would have us believe. If they were in the habit of keeping all their money in a vault somewhere they wouldn’t be the “evil rich” person they are today. Thank you Steve Jobs for working so hard to create wealth, I don’t envy the sacrifices you made one bit.

So, in the ever profound words of country music, this “old man” is one of those “bottom” 150 million Americans, we should be proud of that and of where WE come from:

See that door right there, man I swear
It ain’t never been locked
And I Guarantee that it never will
That old man right there in the rocking chair
At the courthouse square I’ll tell you now
He could buy your fancy car with hundred dollar bills
Don’t let those faded overalls fool ya
He made his million without one day of schoolin’

Where I come from
There’s a pickup truck with the tailgate down
Where I come from
The pine trees are singing a song of the south
Where I come from
That little white church is gonna have a crowd
Yeah, I’m pretty damn proud of where I come from.

(From: “Where I Come From” by Montgomery Gentry.)