The Problem with the "Evil Rich"

In this era of massive government spending, a huge government deficit, untold amounts of consumer debt, and stories of layoffs after layoffs, some have come to wonder how those who have money achieved their wealth. Those some have come to the conclusion that the evil rich through trickery and deceit.

I have evidence this thought exists. In the Fall of 2008, my university sociology teacher explained to us that the rich came across their wealth by stealing it from the poor and middle class. Why? Because they’re rich. Circular reasoning, for those who don’t know.

So let’s humor my teacher and the masses for a moment. Let’s say that all rich people are evil. Who is rich? Well, certainly CEOs and their conglomerate companies. Politicians, too, who often have more money than they’ll ever make serving public office (I’ve often wondered why we even pay them then - shouldn’t serving public office be noble enough? But I digress). Yes, this includes President Obama.

So it seems we need to reclaim this money - at least according to my teacher. Who’s to do this? The government - run by evil rich politicians - of course! So this leaves me with two questions:

1. Why would we trust one group of evil rich people (politicians) to take money from another group of politicians? Wouldn’t the first group just keep it for themselves?

2. If the evil rich became rich from stealing from the poor and middle class, wouldn’t they just take the money from the poor to pay these extra taxes? If so, then raising taxes on the rich is actually raising taxes on the middle class and the poor!

Of course, I don’t believe that rich people are inherently evil. I think that rich people do need to spread the wealth - through jobs - than for the government to take it and hand it out - where some of the money will be spent of the logistics of handing it out.

I don’t know. Just think about it.

Until next time,

Joe