Who Would Have Thought?

So, Mr Warren Buffet – a wealthy man I have come to respect – has been taunting other wealthy people to ‘pay their fair share’. The first response to his jibs was, “If you feel so strongly about this, make a donation to the government.”

To which Mr Buffet returned, “I will if you will.” So far as I’ve heard, he’s only matched the donation made by one other person, even though that person had made his donation before this spitting match began. I have not heard of any other elected officials – wealthy or otherwise - making any effort to personally alleviate the budget crisis for Mr Buffet to match.

Reminds me of that old saying, “Put your money where your mouth is.” Only, I think that refers to gambling, right?

Then Mr Buffet started talking about how unfair it was for him to pay a tax rate of about half what his secretary pays. He feels the wealthy should pay at least the same tax rate as the middle class. A LOT of people have mulled that over, and according to the polls I’ve seen, over 70% of the American people think that would be fair. Mr Obama thinks it would be fair. Somebody actually introduced ‘The Buffet Rule’ to Congress.

Well, who would have thought? It never came to vote, even though it had a simple majority of support. (Anybody know which Republicans supported it? That might be interesting to know.) But to keep it from being voted on, the wealthy Republicans banded together and filibustered. I’m sure the idea of having to pay more taxes than they already do seems like a personal attack on them.

Have they ever stopped to think what their lifestyle would be like if the 99% of the population who are NOT wealthy suddenly decided to ostracize them? No cooks, no maids, no butlers or gardeners or chauffeurs, no nannies for the kids, no pilot for the private jet. Now let’s get serious about it; no secretaries, no receptionist, nobody to work in their factory or office or whatever. Nobody to serve them in the restaurants or the night clubs or the bank … Who would have thought the 1% could be that dependent on the good will of the 99%?

History Lesson

Way back in school, I heard someone say, "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it." I thought it meant that those students who could not manage to memorize dates and names would have to repeat the class. So I diligently memorized names, dates and places, even though the part of history that really interested me was the people – What did people of that time period eat, drink, wear, own, think?

But for the most part, nobody seems to care about the people of any given period. Students might be given a dozen names to remember, but what they wind up knowing about those chosen individuals (long enough to take the test) is that this one was the general on Side A of this battle, that one was a political leader whose main policy was...

After school, I sometimes would pick up a book, an article, or some other form of knowledge about a particular era, looking for the 'social' history information I never really got in history classes. Still, I really don't consider myself as any more knowledgeable about history than the average person. And yet, even I can see a second meaning to that old saying, a way that history is now repeating itself, because the people 'in charge' have not realized they were ignoring important history lessons.

Let's take a quick look at 4 events throughout history; the Magna Carta, the French Revolution, the Great Irish Famine & Revolution, and the Russian Revolution. In all these cases, it's my understanding that the great majority of the population had been severely oppressed by their rulers for so long that, out of desperation, the masses rose up and declared that they'd had enough. Most of these were successful; the Irish probably waited too long. After several years of being left to starve, they wouldn't have had enough strength to effectively revolt.

Now let's look at 4 more recent events; the Egyptian Revolution, the Lybian Revolution, the Syrian Revolt and the Occupy America movement. Again, the great majority of the population has been oppressed for years. Again, they've had enough.

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.