As someone who was a life-long liberal, but worked their ass off to become a 1%er, I 100% believe that the Democrats are using people like me as scapegoats and it makes me furious. I worked and studied when my classmates or coworkers were partying, made good choices, and now I enjoy a nice life because of it.
But now all of a sudden, because I make over $400,000 I "don't pay my fair share of taxes", according to Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden? They can go fuck themselves. Until the Democrats stop vilifying people like me, I'm going to hold my nose and vote anti-Democrat across the board. Everyone that I talk to feel the exact same as me.
I don't know you so can't comment on your position. The fact of the matter is you studied hard and did something your peers did not and as such,and assuming we're going to need people with your learned skills and knowledge, you will get paid a premium as a reward. The question is how much of a reward, it's acceptable until the point it becomes exploitative. In this day and age a lot of that high compensation going around isn't due to increased value add but rather by reducing (exploiting) others compensation. Can you add value without the janitor doing his part? Its getting to the point where people doing necessary jobs are no longer able to live, despite them adding value. Can take it one step further, even if people aren't able to add value (lacking skills etc.), you still live with them in the society you live in, what happens then? Guillotines? Pogroms?
Your success is not yours alone. Society got you to that place and enabled it.
The US and EU country GDP's per capita are very similar like around €60k. The inequality is what is different. $400k is just insane in European country.
But your money is still small fry, billionaires own like 30% of everything in the US. Politicians are probably hiding behind taxing your class, rather than the real issue, billionaires.
That's all besides the point. It sounds like he is making < $1 million / yr which might technically put him in the top 1%, but his wealth is still far from the point of being a target for wealth taxes that some on the left have proposed. He is still in the same boat as the rest of the middle/upper-middle class families in this country but has somehow been convinced that he's in the same boat as billionaire heirs/hedge fund managers/CEOs. Which makes sense if you don't actually know any of those people, some people's level of wealth is just hard to wrap your head around.
I don't want to talk you out of opposition to the Democratic party or to vilification of ANYONE, including the wealthy. But I DO have a perspective you might be missing:
You write:
> As someone who [...] worked their ass off to become a 1%er [...] I worked and studied when my classmates or coworkers were partying, made good choices, and now I enjoy a nice life because of it.
I, like you, work fairly hard and have become quite well-compensated. What I'd like to point out is that there are probably two categories of folks who are NOT "1%ers". There are those who were "partying" and making poor choices and therefore have a lower income. But there are also those who worked VERY hard but never had the opportunity to be rewarded for that work.
It is easy for me to feel entitled about my distinguished-software-engineer-level income if I think only of the first group, but if I compare myself to the second group I have to remember that many of them never had the chance to go to college, never had the opportunities I had and aren't in any way "undeserving". You probably already know everything I am saying here, but I wanted to share that this perspective is one I keep in mind when making statements so I don't come out sounding unreasonably entitled.
I’m retired now after a pretty middle class career, and am well aware of how much of my success was essentially luck. I have a reasonably high IQ (not my doing), was born into a family that, while poor, instilled middle class values (again not my doing), was born with a skin color that matched the majority (do I need I to keep saying not my doing?) I lucked into a career which suited me, in an economy that worked very differently than it does now. And I was lucky enough not to have any major health problems during all of this.
A lot of people seem to think of themselves as self-made, without realizing the number of folks who worked just as hard as they think they did without seeing anywhere near the same success.
Maybe something will happen at some point to make them open their eyes, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
I worked in factories, I worked minimum wage jobs, I paid for my own college through scholarships and part-time jobs. I came from a lower-middle class background, and we never went on trips and we never ate out. KFC was considered a special treat. I manufactured my entire career and where I am in life, the fact that there are some people who weren't able to match me is orthogonal to any of that and I won't feel guilty about it. I don't look down on them one bit, life is tough and unfair, but I also won't feel guilty or self-flagellate myself because I worked hard and took advantage of whatever opportunities I either got or created for myself.
So because some people were mean to you, you just changed all your values about gay marriage, climate change, social welfare, etc?
Honestly I actually don't like the "tax the rich to make them pay their fair share" narrative either because it implies that taxes are what pays for the social programs, which is reductive at best (at least with current US monetary theory). I don't make more than $400,000/year [1], but I have traditionally done pretty well in total comp, and I still vote left because I my viewpoints don't change just because some people were to demonize me.
Also, wasn't Elizabeth Warren's "pay their fair share" tax for people making like more than $10 million?
[1] I actually make $0/year right now due to layoffs.
I think the start of your reply is the bad faith they’re calling out — as that’s obviously not what they said.
They simply prioritize their well-being and not being vilified over the social causes you view as $very_important; and I’d suggest that since you bring up issues such as minority rights, you examine why you think they should accept being othered and vilified, when clearly you object to that behavior in other contexts.
Why is that particular example of social abuse something they need to “sit down and shut up” about?
Because I’m paraphrasing your reply, which aligns with that mentality.
You didn’t explicitly say that because you know your own behavior is inappropriate — and pretend to condemn it in other contexts.
But Democrats are commonly hypocritical — eg, claiming to protect minority rights while being frothing mad they’re told they can’t use 1950s arguments about “too many Asians and Jews” to engage in systemic racism at universities.
Ok, but quotes tend to imply something literal, or nearly-literal, and it's not something I said, nor did I imply it, at least not intentionally.
I've personally always hated when certain groups are "not allowed" to have an opinion on given topics, for whatever reason, and I have pretty actively said as much when people have told others to "sit down and shut up", so in your particular case you're responding to a straw man and assigning attributes to me that are not true.
EDIT:
You edited your response after the fact and didn't disclose that. I'm responding to your edits now.
> You didn’t explicitly say that because you know your own behavior is inappropriate — and pretend to condemn it in other contexts.
Do I know my own behavior is inappropriate? What behavior is that exactly?
> But Democrats are commonly hypocritical — eg, claiming to protect minority rights while being frothing mad they’re told they can’t use 1950s arguments about “too many Asians and Jews” to engage in systemic racism at universities.
I have very mixed feelings in regards to the way that universities do their recruiting, and even in regards to the recent supreme court decision. Again, you're assigning labels to me that don't really apply. I tend to vote left, so I guess it's fair to lump me in with Democrats in a consequentialist sense.
I really think that you're prescribing stuff to me based on stereotypes you have in regards to other lefties. That's fair enough, I do that sometimes as well, but I really just think you're wrong. I do not agree with the statement "sit down and shut up" in really any regard.
I think you could make an argument that you're responsible for the "full package" of the politician you vote for. That's why I conceded that it might be fair enough to lump me in with that group.
I also didn't make "accusations", I said that I thought it was bizarre that someone would change their political positions just because someone was mean to them. I stand by that...I think that's a weird thing to do. If Bernie Sanders personally sent me a message saying "Tombert is a real douchebag", I'm not going to suddenly start going to MAGA rallies, because my political opinions aren't about people liking me.
The reply is that they obviously didn’t: they merely prioritize other issues — just as you prioritize other issues ahead of not supporting organized racism towards Asians.
The inference they changed their opinion on those topics, rather than prioritized something else (eg, not being vilified) is a bad faith inference directly contradicted by their post, which explains why they changed their vote explicitly.
If I were to use your logic, then I’d conclude that you are personally racist towards Asians — because you vote for a party that is. But that would both be incorrect and an act of bad faith.
$400k/yr is not rich in this country. At best it's upper-middle class. In fact it shouldn't even be tied to income. I have some very wealthy friends, i.e. people that just casually have $80 million cash in a checking account not to mention all their other assets. Which I have no problem with.
Elizabeth Warren is not talking about you. Actual rich people are laughing all the way to the bank at people like you for voting for policies for which they will get 99% of the benefit.
Also, "the Democrats" != Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders
> But now all of a sudden, because I make over $400,000 I "don't pay my fair share of taxes", according to Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden?
Why do you feel the need to lie about the position of politicians when they are so easily available?
> Zero additional tax on any household with a net worth of less than $50 million (99.9% of American households)
So unless you're sitting on a fat nest egg, Sen. Warren thinks that you are indeed paying your fair share of taxes. I'm sure Sanders and Biden agree. Stop lying.
But now all of a sudden, because I make over $400,000 I "don't pay my fair share of taxes", according to Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden? They can go fuck themselves. Until the Democrats stop vilifying people like me, I'm going to hold my nose and vote anti-Democrat across the board. Everyone that I talk to feel the exact same as me.