Thursday, September 22, 2011

Elizabeth and the Factory Owner

According to Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, nobody gets rich on their own. Hot on the campaign trail for the 2012 Massachusetts senate, Ms. Warren waxed rambunctious about an imaginary rich factory owner who apparently isn't grateful for the vital role government plays in their wealth creation. She vigorously explains how government built the roads, provided the employee education, and paid for the police and fire services used by the factory owner to grow his business. Near the end of this stern lecture, Ms. Warren reminds the factory owner of his social contract necessitating government’s long arm into his back pocket.


It's bad enough this arrogant line of thinking infects Harvard's student body on a daily basis, but Ms. Warren is a key player in the upper echelon of Democratic public policy decisions.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Warren and the Receptionist

Warren Buffett’s musings on the inherent unfairness of his small federal tax bill primes the pump for our main stream media’s preconceived storyline that a burgeoning national debt should be partially addressed via tax increases on greedy rich people. Among other comments Mr. Buffet’s made on the subject includes this half-truth, “The 400 richest of us pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you're in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”

Mr. Buffett’s statement seems fair enough. When you are super rich while others struggle to make ends meet, paying a lower tax rate than your secretary does seem pretty appalling.