>>>>snip
>>>>
>>>>>Damn that pesky electorate. How dare they want to keep what they earn. If only they'd succomb to the wisdom of an enlightneed elite. ;)
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Can you name any evolved society / country in which people get to keep all of what they earn? There are some who seem to feel that is an inalienable human right, but in fact such a society does not exist.
>>>
>>>The United States 1776-1862 & 1868-1913.
>>>
>>
>>My God, man. No one would want to * come * to a country like that ! How would it ever attract immigrants?
>
>Ha ha. You and Jake are two really smart guys, that said unironically. Not that you care about my opinion -- you (Charles, not Jake) have made that crystal clear and have said it in about exactly those words -- but still it is disappointing to see the idolization of greed from both of you.

Am I understanding you correctly, because I agree with our founders that property, specifically the fruits of one's labor, should be theirs to spend as they choose, I idolize greed? My point in response to your above question was to demonstrate an apparent lack of modern understanding of the history of "income" taxation in the US. Namely that it took a Constitutional amendment to make it legal and that this country was rather successful for 130 years as an evolved society / country in which people get to keep all of what they earn.

>It is coming across as "I've got mine and the rest of you can go fly a kite."

I'd say a better application of this phrase comes from the likes of Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates and other uber-wealthy individuals who are publicly stating their willingness to pay more in taxes, providing everyone else participates. How generous they are with other people's money. Now that they got theirs, they're more than willing to have their rates raised. Of course, for someone like Buffett who derives his income through capital gains and investment returns he has no skin in the income tax game. We never heard this from them as they were building their fortunes.

Of course they could cut a check to the government at any time instead of deploying their capital through their own charities. ;)

>Sad, really. We have all these problems and some of our best and brightest are going to the mattresses. This is supposed to make things better how?

>The backlash against and now official suppression of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, and the worldwide movement they spawned, is quite amazing. It started with fury against the financial interests who got us into this whole economic mess, the most serious since the Great Depression.

OWS started when Working Families Party ran ads on Craigslist to pay people to protest. The goal was to begin an uprising which would attract others to the cause and appear to be a grass roots answer to the tea party.
The original ad (now removed) was here http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/gov/2618821815.html.

The differences are staggering.