The wealthy are redistributionists

[gulliver]

They take from the middle and working class in this country and give to the poor in other countries.

One of the Republican not-so-secret motivations is anxiety about the hungry and needy. They look on a starving or homeless person, and they see someone who is potentially after their food or who might want to move into their neighborhood. Republicans look on the rich in exactly the opposite way, as people they can potentially get something from. Therefore, Republicans look on government wealth redistribution as taking their "potential something" from the wealthy and giving it to the grasping poor. The wealthy, so the Republican middle and working class think, would be handing out jobs and other largesse to Americans if only the government didn't take the wealthy's money. And those jobs would be going to "the right people."

Pathetic but true.

So we have to use that ugly truth to drive a wedge between middle and working class Republicans and the wealthy. Thanks to globalization, the wealthy are becoming de facto wealth redistributionists. They are letting the "poor, unwashed, grasping" needy in other countries have American wealth. Americans can't afford steak twice a week anymore, because the formerly poor and needy in other countries are demanding more high end food. Americans can't get $40K per year to build widgets any more because the wealthy have given eight $5,000 jobs to the "wretched refuse" in foreign countries.

The wealthy are no longer people you might get something from. They are people who take things from you and give them to foreigners. It's worse than taxes, because the wealthy answer to no voters and take the lion's share of all of the good things that remain in this country. Bottom line, it is the wealthy, not the socialists, who are agents of most wealth redistribution and "forced" standard of living inequality correction. The effect is just global instead of national.

Note: Before I get flamed, I don't think all Republicans think this way by any stretch. Nor do I think poverty reduction in foreign countries is a bad thing. I'm not wealthy, but I do invest a good deal of my retirement savings in foreign assets. And the wealthy are not evil as a class. Most of them are probably excellent people. I know several; they are. If the wealthy invest in foreign countries, it is because they are doing what is best for themselves and their families.

This post is intended as a fairly caustic answer to Republican carping about socialism. It asks the Republican to see something they hate sitting right there in political bed with them. Income redistribution is happening big time right under our noses, but taxes are not the main culprit. Indeed taxing the wealthy may actually slow the pace of income redistribution from Americans to those in other countries.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. YES, YES AND YES. Yours is the best post of the evening.

Thank you.

[SoutherDem]

2. Republicans love Socialism!

it is just instead of taking from rich and giving to poor, it is taking from the poor and giving to rich. Welfare and redistribution of wealth is what they want, us to them.

Great post, you hit the nail right on the head!

[StarsInHerHair]

3. I dont think anyone should have to say "most of them are probably excellent

people"...TOO FEW apparently, because they have not changed the direction nor the impact, that the predatory wealthy have determined.