Reading Paul Krugman's column about the anger among rich Americans at the prospect of paying higher taxes, it occurs to me that the the Bootstraps Rap ("nobody ever gave me nuttin'!") is nowhere to be heard when it comes to taxation. The same people who don't want the government spending money to feed and house desperate people are whinging like spoiled toddlers about the government potentially not spending money to subsidize their ridiculously low tax rate.
Sure, they frame it as the government taking something from them, but, in practice, lower tax rates (lower income) effect the fed's bottom line in ultimately the same way higher welfare rates (higher outgoing) does. So the framing is just a way to make themselves feel better about projecting their narratives of laziness and greed onto poor folks.
You know, conservatives always talk about how they want to return to some magical Golden Age of America, circa 1945 to 1960, and I say we start with bringing back the 80%+ tax rate that the wealthiest Americans paid at that time. Yay for nostalgia.
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