Smashing the “Spreading Wealth is Evil” Meme

Obama is taking hits for saying the words “spread the wealth”. Why? Do republicans believe that we shouldn’t spread the wealth? That wealth is only for the rich? That the rest of us should never have a shot at wealth? If that’s true, it’s really working out for the republicans and their rich investor and upper management cronies. Their share of the national income has grown dramatically, while the people who work for them have stagnated financially, or worse, have lost income and their savings.

It wasn’t always like this. For decades, the deal was that workers shared in productivity gains. As workers become more efficient, some of the profit increase was spread to them. Average Americans could reasonably assume that if they worked hard and were careful, they could expect a slowly rising standard of living, one that would enable them to raise their families and save a bit for retirement. That worked for years, benefiting working people, the people who eventually voted for Reagan. But as soon as the Gipper took office, the big crackdown began. The republican mania for tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, and union-busting, all supported by a pseudo-intellectual theory of trickle-down economics, meant the end of the old deal. And as the republican policies took effect, the wages of workers were unlinked from productivity increases. Take a look at the productivity chart in Ian’s post. It is revealing.

Republicans, especially including John McCain, have adopted policies that enforce their ideology, policies that will insure that the working people of America can forget the idea that they should get a real raise after inflation as they become more productive, or that their standard of living.

What do we say if someone raises this issue as a reason to vote against Obama? How about this:

There are two ways to spread the wealth. We can confiscate property from rich people and give it to the poor. You don’t really think that’s what Obama wants?

The second way is to make sure the rich people don’t confiscate money from you. They have to pay their fair share of taxes, and they don’t get to tap your future to pay for their bailouts. Bailout money helps you only after it helps them, because you might be able to borrow money. But they weren’t willing to put their trillions of dollars to work to save the system they wrecked. They want you to pay.

Well, they repay by paying higher taxes. Much higher. It’s going to take a lot of taxes to pay that trillion or two back.

Republicans want you to pay. That’ll happen for sure if you elect more republicans.

Obama can’t say things like this, But, Yes We Can!