Free Republic

After reading the Socialist claptrap "Wondering if tax ride goes too easy on rich" (Nov. 20), I was left wondering if I should cancel my subscription to the Star Tribune. I decided to write a rejoinder instead. Those in favor of soaking the rich cite "ability to pay" as if it were some immutable characteristic, like race or eye color. After all, if someone was lucky enough to be born with more "ability to pay," why shouldn't he or she share with the rest of us poor schlubs who were born without that attribute? This attitude is fostered by the...

In an analysis of the top 100 outsourcing deals for 2004 just released by IDC, the research firm found a dramatic shift to more business process outsourcing (BPO), an increase in the number of players, and a reduction in total deal value. These developments reflect increased competition and expansion in the marketplace, and create pressure for traditional outsourcers to alter their business models to compete in the coming years. The value of the top 100 outsourcing deals in 2004 decreased by 1.2 percent from $69.1 billion in 2003 to $68.3 billion in 2004, according to the report. The study also...

THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE W. Bush has three years yet to run, but this season of scandal and disillusionment is an opportune moment for conservatives to start thinking seriously about the post-Bush era--and particularly how to fashion a domestic policy from the wreckage of Bush-style, big-government conservatism. Thanks to the abiding weakness of the Democratic party, Republicans haven't yet paid a political price for insider-friendly appropriation bills, Medicare boondoggles, or the smog of semi-corruption rising from the party's cozy relationship with KStreet. But even if the GOP's majority survives the next election cycle, conservatives shouldn't kid themselves: President Bush's domestic...

While we’re on subject of race and class . . .By JONAH GOLDBERG FOR REASONS good and bad — mostly bad — the media establishment has decided that Hurricane Katrina should be a “teaching moment” about race and class issues. One might be more inclined to think this is a teaching moment about our preparedness to respond to a major terrorist attack — presumably Osama Bin Laden isn’t boning up on his Barbara Ehrenreich because of the fallout in New Orleans. But, hey, that’s what the cognoscenti have decided. And that’s OK, I guess. One of the remarkable things about...

Hillary Clinton Proposes Katrina Tax Hike 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that she favors rolling back the Bush tax cuts to fund reconstruction efforts in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Dear Silky Pony: Thank you very much for your concern regarding the victims of the New Orleans Hurricane and Flood. I have a great suggestion on how to help. You have received millions of dollars from multiple lawsuits that you filed against the American Red Cross. Why not donate this money back to the Red Cross. Just a suggestion. Your friend, Karl Marx

Has a fairer America also become an America with less social mobility? That is the uncomfortable question raised by John Parker's long American survey in The Economist last month. "A decline in social mobility would run counter to Americans' deepest beliefs about their country," Parker writes. "Unfortunately, that is what seems to be happening. Class is reappearing in a new form." This was the conclusion, as well, of a recent series of articles in The New York Times -- although, as the Times and Parker both note, polls show that Americans think their chances of moving up are better than...

Someone once defined a social problem as a situation in which the real world differs from the theories of intellectuals. To the intelligentsia, it follows, as the night follows the day, that it is the real world that is wrong and which needs to change. Having imagined a world in which each individual has the same probability of success as anyone else, intellectuals have been shocked and outraged that the real world is nowhere close to that ideal. Vast amounts of time and resources have been devoted to trying to figure out what is stopping this ideal from being realized...

It is impossible that the Bush tax cuts of June 2003 contributed to relatively lower tax payments by the very richest Americans in 2002. But New York Times writer David Cay Johnston conveniently avoids this fact in his Sunday front-page article, “Richest Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind,” which used tax-payment data that ended in 2002 to extend the class-warfare argument. Is this just more garden-variety Bush-bashing from the newspaper of record? I’d also like to know why Johnston never mentions the fact that the wealthiest Americans suffered the most in the stock market plunge and asset deflation of 2000-02....

When F. Scott Fitzgerald pronounced that the very rich "are different from you and me," Ernest Hemingway's famously dismissive response was: "Yes, they have more money." Today he might well add: much, much, much more money. The people at the top of America's money pyramid have so prospered in recent years that they have pulled far ahead of the rest of the population, an analysis of tax records and other government data by The New York Times shows. They have even left behind people making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Call them the hyper-rich. They are not just...

“We don’t have to apologize for the moral values of the Democratic Party.” Howard Dean criticized the Republican Party on Friday as disingenuous for preaching moral values while cutting services for the poor. Speaking in Kansas City, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee told a crowd at the Uptown Theater that Democrats can be proud of their stands on the issues. “We don’t have to apologize for the moral values of the Democratic Party,” the former Vermont governor said. Republicans discounted Dean’s message as another sign that Democrats are still looking for effective issues. “They are a party in...

I don’t believe in coincidences in politics. When I see the Wall Street Journal and New York Times both running big front-page stories within two days of each other on a subject that isn’t remotely time sensitive, I know that something is going on. More than likely, it signals the beginning of an organized campaign by the liberal media to gin up an issue for the Democrats. When a team is on a losing streak, the best thing the coach can do is line up a game with a cream-puff opponent. Even if the victory doesn’t mean much substantively, it...

This Reason article is printed from: http://www.reason.com/links/links051605.shtmlClick on the back button on your browser to return to previous page May 16, 2005 Embarassment of Riches The Times declares class warfare Ronald Bailey Class anxiety must still exist in some quarters of America. At least, somebody out there is still buying copies of popular recent excursions through America's class structure, such as Class: A Guide Through the American Status System by leftish literary critic Paul Fussell and Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by conservative columnist David Brooks. Now The New York Times has decided...

I don't believe in coincidences in politics. When I see the Wall Street Journal and New York Times both running big front-page stories within two days of each other on a subject that isn't remotely time sensitive, I know that something is going on. More than likely, it signals the beginning of an organized campaign by the liberal media to gin up an issue for the Democrats. When a team is on a losing streak, the best thing the coach can do is line up a game with a cream-puff opponent. Even if the victory doesn't mean much substantively, it...

Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate and class warfare enthusiast John "Two Americas" Edwards and his wife might spend their anniversaries at Wendy's (at least when there are newspaper photographers and cable news anchors in the parking lot), but the other 364 days of their year are played out in much swanker quarters. Considering his much-lauded penchant for what passes for "populist" rhetoric theses days -- "Let me say this in simple right and wrong, black and white terms," Edwards bravely told one New Hampshire crowd during primary season. "I say no to kids going to bed hungry in America. I say...

The rhetoric of class warfare is as old as dirt. Even Pharaoh kept the slaves fighting among themselves to extend their captivity. But there is nothing classy about stirring people’s jealousy and envy, making people feel as if the world owes them something, or bashing people who take risks to create jobs and help drive our economy. It is classless exploitation to appeal to a person’s weakness of understanding instead of their strength of character. Not surprisingly, Democratic Party leaders were quick to attack President Bush’s most recent proposal to help restructure Social Security by labeling it a “benefit cut...

America's current mass immigration mess is the result of a change in the laws in 1965. Prior to 1965, despite some changes in the 50's, America was a low-immigration country basically living under immigration laws written in 1924. Thanks to low immigration, the swamp of cheap labor was largely drained during this period, America became a fundamentally middle-class society, and our many European ethnic groups were brought together into a common national culture. In some ways, this achievement was so complete that we started to take for granted what we had achieved and forgot why it happened. So in a...

Initiative: Preschool for all kids in the state ROB REINER TO LAUNCH PUSH FOR '06 BALLOT By Luis Zaragoza Mercury News Motivated by studies that suggest prepping children for kindergarten is key to their future academic and personal success, film director Rob Reiner planned to announce today that he is launching a campaign to make free, half-day preschool programs available to every 4-year-old in California. ``We've spent a year discussing this -- in a sense, doing what any legislature would do,'' said Reiner of the committee of labor, business and education experts that helped shape an initiative he hopes to...

As for the politics, the silver lining of the AMT is that it will drive blue-state Democrats into the tax reform debate later this year. Their own constituents will be demanding some relief. So far this year, Republicans are again proposing a temporary AMT fix that would spare some taxpayers from its clutches for another year or two. But maybe they should instead let this class-war Frankenstein continue to terrorize the liberal countryside until Democrats have no choice but to support major change when the President's Tax Reform Commission reports in July. Who knows, this entire AMT experience might even...

Pay in 1990s found to rise average of 4% for poor families, 24% for wealthy The North Bay was a spectacular job machine in the 1990s and into 2001, but the benefits went overwhelmingly to high-income workers while a growing number of low-income residents hardly gained ground, according to a study to be released today by a Sonoma County research group. "Economic growth in the North Bay has failed to bring shared prosperity to the region's residents," said Martin Bennett, executive director of New Economy, Working Solutions, a group representing union, housing and religious organizations. The study covering Sonoma, Marin,...