Those wacky conservative Brits continue to try to make some inroads with the non-reality-based community with little obvious effect. Relevant excerpt:
But the bad news outdoes the good. The Republicans, by getting rid of inheritance tax, seem hell-bent on ignoring Teddy Roosevelt’s warnings about the dangers of a hereditary aristocracy. The Democrats are more interested in preferment for minorities than building ladders of opportunity for all.
I couldn’t agree more. A couple years ago, an acquaintance in Austin inherited a ton of money from his parent, and as a result doesn’t currently hold a job (by choice), and argued very strongly that the inheritance tax (even with its huge exemption which has only gotten huger since then) is unquestionably bad, both practically and idealistically. I can’t even imagine somebody who truly believes in the American dream holding those views (i.e. better to tax work than inheritance), but they’re all over the place, and they voted W. Far better to idolize somebody who inherited his wealth and all his jobs than somebody like Clinton, who had to work his way out of trailer-trashdom, I suppose.
And the semi-permanent corporate pseudo-aristocracy (once you’re an executive, you can kill 20 or 30 companies and still get executive jobs) ain’t helping my mood either. The CEO of my last clerking factory single-handedly destroyed the place, and yet I’m sure he won’t see even a remote economic hit from it, while the people he callously and frivolously fired when he was in a bad mood had to struggle to get by.
This isn’t the America I believe in, and I don’t have a lot of optimism that it’s coming back anytime soon.
Thanks for the Economist link, Mike. That article puts the hammer to the nail on the current economic (and class) conditions in America, however dishearting they may be.