ManicDDaily

It sounds paternalistic; it is paternalistic; but the concept of noblesse oblige, or as Sergeant Colon of Terry Prachett’s Discworld calls it – nobblyesse obligay–used to make the wealthy and/or aristocratic feel guilty enough to do the right thing, at least some minor sacrifice which passed as the right thing.

The “right thing” in this paternalistic, but noble, world meant something that was fair-minded,  generous (i.e. not greedy).  This seems to have been a little more clearcut in times before trickle-down economics or of  ‘get as much of it while you can’ economics (the system we seem to have now.)

As Paul Krugman points out in today’s New York Times (“The Angry Rich”), many of the rich in the U.S are hopping mad.  They feel absolutely entitled to  (or perhaps psychotically defensive about) their hundreds of millions and are really really worried about a return to a tax system that was in place a mere ten years ago.   An especially angry billionaire, Steve Schwarzman, has compared President Obama’s proposals to tax the earnings of hedge fund managers as ordinary income to Hitler’s invasion of Poland.   (I’m not completely sure who is more injured by this type of statement–Obama or the people of Poland, whose suffering in World War II seems horribly demeaned by such an idiotic comparison.)

What’s crazier, and sadder, is that so many ordinary Americans are caught up in the defense of the rich and super-rich.  Such Americans, angered by the more visible entitlements of the poor (which in the big scheme of things are pretty paltry–that’s why they are poor). give the rich a free ride.   Many of the working and middle class seem to view the rich as a parallel (if luckier) group to themselves; hard-working folks who deserve to keep absolutely all of what they have.   They don’t seem to ask if the rich are really thousands of times more hard-working or deserving than a poor guy or gal with two low-paying jobs.

The idea has been spread that protecting a billionaire’s billions from a pre-George W. Bush level of tax is somehow incremental to protecting a middle or working class person’s thousands (or hundreds); the fact that it’s the Republicans who are holding tax reductions for the middle class hostage has also been obfuscated.   What’s saddest is that many of the working and middle class do not seem to recognize that by fighting any return to the former tax regime for the rich, they are unknowingly offering to make big sacrifices for them–sacrifices in safety, public services, decent schools, a civil society.

A not so minor sacrifice.

Pauvresse oblige.

This entry was posted on September 20, 2010 at 9:52 pm and is filed under news, Obama, Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: comparing raise in taxes on hedge fund managers to Hitler's invasion of Poland, manicddaily, ManicDDaily elephant drawing, noblesse oblige, Paul Krugman article re Angry Rich, Pauvresse Oblige, return to Clinton era taxes on wealthy, Steve Schwarzman, Terry Pratchett - nobblyesse obligay