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Read other letters about this article
I've got news for you, America, we're ALL getting screwed!
Yes, there is a tiny sliver of the population that is so mind-bogglingly wealthy that it is thoroughly insulated from the utter degradation of our society--in public education, health care, infrastructure--that has been going on for the last 30 years.
But I'm talking a fraction of one percent of income "earners." And I put that word in quotes because many of these people don't actually earn wages like you and I do; they live off of their investments, which are currently taxed at 15 percent.
Oh, and by the way, these folks don't pay taxes the same way you and I do. You think your CPA did a great job for you with all of those clever itemized deductions? Managed to skirt that alternative minimum tax last year by the skin of your teeth?
Maybe you are a property owner and hate the onerous regulations that those goddamn Democrats keep forcing down your throat. Doing what you want to do with your own property is almost a sacred right in this country. What business is it of theirs?
Maybe you started your own business but hate the fact that all the decisions in your town seem to get made by those Republican old boys who play golf every Saturday afternoon at the country club. Bunch of closed-minded bigots.
I used to work at a law firm with a tax department whose partners and associates could wallpaper a good-sized media room with Ivy League law school diplomas. Guess who they work for? Corporations and "high net-worth individuals." Their clients are the ones who declared "class warfare" on the rest of us a long time ago.
There's a lot of disagreement in these comments about Andrew's post. But I'd bet most of my meager 401(k) savings that everyone who has commented here today isn't among the blessed number of Americans who can pay the hourly rate of a tax partner at a global law firm.
My point is that we've got a lot more in common than we think we do. We are all struggling to pay the bills, and we all want a livable, better world for our children and grandchildren.
Right now, we've got an entrenched and unbelievably cynical and short-sighted moneyed and political class pulling the strings in our country. It's OUR country! Democrats, Republicans--at least most of the ones we've got right now--they have been corrupted. We need a change.
My takeaway from Andrew's piece was that oil is in the past. This issue about drilling is just another way to divide us. It may be that we will eventually need that oil to power the machines that build the solar, wind or nuclear generating stations that will power the vastly expanded electrical grid we'll need to live sustainably.
Our civic and political "leaders" long ago abandoned our best interests. Their only goal is to perpetuate their own power. Let's break this cycle.
