Americans are told almost constantly to eat shit. Of course the whining of billionaire assholes

[ProfessorPlum]

is ignored.

From stagnant wages, to shitty expensive health insurance, from polluted air and water, to work with no paid vacation, the American worker is told to be tough, work harder, belt-tighten, get sick and die quickly and quietly.

And for the most part, like Boxer in Animal Farm, American workers do just that. Make do. Scrape by. Survive. Keep working. Die quietly.

And now, along come Howard Schultz and Mike Bloomberg to complain about possibly having to pay a couple more bucks in taxes. Not surprisingly, no one has time for their shit. Because, if the extent of hardship in your life is paying a bit more for income over $10 million a year, you already have enough bread that you aren't tasting the shit in the shit sandwich that is American life. A few more bucks in taxes is effectively nothing to them - they'll still have all of the money they could possibly need, and they will never miss it. The rest of us could make good use of that extra tax income, though, to make life slightly less awful.

No wonder Schultz's approval rating is 4%.

[DontBooVote]

1. And that's exactly what we do...eat shit. Constantly.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. To hear Republicans talk

it's as though we've all been living life high on the hog and that we've had things too good for too long and now it's time for (the rest of) us to "be responsible" and "tighten our belts".

[CrispyQ]

2. If the richest people in the country had to pay more in taxes,

they would still be the richest people in the country.

[JHB]

3. In 107 years of income tax, 50 of them had top marginal rates of 70%...

...or higher.

We still had rich people the entire time, they just had to fatten their accounts slower.

[ProfessorPlum]

4. _and_ they got to live in a much nicer society for everyone

a win-win

[LiberalArkie]

15. During those years we had the Interstate Highway system built

public hospitals built, polio etc vaccines developed, men sent to the moon, federal turn back funds for city water systems and sewer system, public radio and television.

But for some reason we can not do those big things any more. No on knows why.


Edit to add: and a lot of those years the Democratic Party controlled the congress, executive and judicial branches.


Historical tax rates.: https://files.taxfoundation.org/legacy/docs/fed_individual_rate_history_nominal.pdf

[JHB]

18. It's a mystery! Wait, correction...

[LiberalArkie]

22. I wold like to point out that since there are no more turn back funds, the cities, counties and

states have to make up the money. They do that by taxing the extreme poor with fines, sales taxes and other fees that the more wealthy never have to encounter.

Most republicans do not understand that. They see taxes as what they have to pay on the gasoline, and food and medicine. I do not make enough on social security to pay federal or state taxes.. But the sales taxes hit hard.

[PatSeg]

21. Exactly!!!

How rich do these assholes have to be??? The problem with greed is there is never enough. It is a disease or a psychological disorder, one that hurts our entire society. Our society not only encourages greed, it rewards it, so the problem really goes deeper and needs to addressed early ideally through education.

[FakeNoose]

5. We need to turn the clock back - to BEFORE Ronald Reagan!

By taxing the one-per-centers, it will take the middle class another 50 years to get caught up financially to 1980 - where we were before Reagan. The longer we wait the harder it's going to be.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

6. Kick for truth.

[McKim]

7. Thank You Professor

Thank you professor. You walk straight to workers. We need your ideas, frames and style. Our Democratic Party needs you!

[Delmette2.0]

8. Excellent post. Thank you.

[mountain grammy]

9. K & R

For this big truth! TAX THE RICH!

[Runningdawg]

10. Old saying from the '70's still true today

Life is a shit sandwich. The more bread you have, the less shit you have to eat.

[pangaia]

11. Well stated. Even dumb, toothless republicans can understand that.

Now they will know why they are toothless.

[geardaddy]

12. K&R

Righteous rant!

[2naSalit]

13. I'm getting pretty sick of the flavor..

milky white, I'm not only lactose intolerant, I'm dying from almost 40 years of shit-poisoning.

[Dorn]

14. I predict:In 2100 billionaires will be like slave owners from 1800s -- gone leaving a painful memory

[world wide wally]

16. I always thought that your taxes should not be based on how much you earn,

But on how much you have left at the end of the year.

[dchill]

17. 4% - and he's peaking right there.

Howard Schultz is just another rich guy whose magic mirror is lying to him.

[louis c]

19. Ya, 4%. Just enough to give the election to Trump

[debsy]

23. It is OK. We middle-class tax payers can afford to pay thousands more in taxes this year...

... to support the whiney baby mega rich and their luxurious life styles. They needed that $1.5(+) trillion tax cut so they could buy back their stock! WTF do we need money for?

[smirkymonkey]

24. I don't understand why people in this country are so complacent.

We are a nation of sheep. What is it? The various forms of media that keeps us numb and entertained so that we don't have to face the reality of what is really going on in this country? Our poor educational system that doesn't teach us how to think critically? The ready availability of so many substances and activities to feed our addictions?

I'm not sure, but I know one thing. We are not awake. Some of us are, like us here on DU. But there are just too many people who bury their heads in the sand and don't want to face the truth about what is going on here.

[Autumn]

25. The biggest problem we people have is that the people we elect never have to choose between

food or medicine. They don't have to worry about taking off work to care for a sick child or parent. They don't have to worry if when they have a car problem, do they pay rent or do they fix their car. Do they pay for an unplanned expense or their utilities. They never have to worry about co pays and deductibles on their health care. They never have to make a choice. They take very good care of their needs while giving lip service to ours.

If politicians had to live like most Americans have to live, things would be vastly different.

[ProfessorPlum]

26. yes, they would

[ck4829]

27. K&R

[maxrandb]

28. Retrumplican would eat a yard of billionaire shit, just to see where it came from