Well the debate on how to pay for health care reform is really starting to heat up.  One way many lawmakers are looking to fund this is by additional taxes to those who make over $200 k. a year.

The response to this from the rich and their in pocket Republican politicians covers the usual list of whiny responses.  Why should those who are successful be punished?  Why should we pay for those who can’t or don’t work?  And the usual two year old response “not fair!”.

Well, even the French royalty recognized that they would not be rich without using the poor.  They considered taking care of the poor as not only smart but the protection of the source of their wealth.  This concept was called “Noblis Oblige” or the nobles obligation.  It was a system that worked well until the rule of Louis the XIV and Marie Antoinette.  When famine struck the French peasants instead of providing food for them, which was the norm, her now infamous “Let them eat cake” response sparked the French revolution with dire results for the French royals.

Today in America the rich seem to think that wealth is a means to forgo any and all obligation to their fellow Americans who are not as fortunate.  They have forgotten that they would not be rich without ample payments to them by the poor.  From government provided tax shelters that allow the wealthy to pay ever decreasing taxes to off shore havens that allow them to pay no taxes at all the wealthy of this country are acting like spoiled royalty.

In recent years the poor and middle class people have been little more than expendable pawns in the chess game of corporate greed and personal profit for many wealthy Americans.  Lets take a look at some examples.

Profits are down?  Lets buy tainted products from China to reduce our cost.  Who’s going to mind radiator fluid in their tooth paste, melamine in their pet food, or roofies disguised as a toy for young children?  Oops we got caught and people died, guess we need to recall these product but we made more money!

Stock prices are a little down?  I might not get my $100 million dollar bonus!  Let’s lay off another ten or is it twenty thousand workers to get those stocks back up and my bonus in my pocket.

Profits down again?  Let’s send outdated, contaminated and almost rotten food to the supermarkets in the poorest neighborhoods.  That way we don’t have to take a loss on them!

What do you mean we don’t have the money to pay me my $100 million dollar bonus!  Take it out of the pension plan!

Stocks are down again?  Take the rest of the money out of the pension and 401k  funds and buy our own stock.  That should prop it up long enough for me to get my next bonus!

Oh shit!  For some reason the company will soon be bankrupt.  Better not tell anyone and sell off all my bonus stock options now!

We are out of money!  Lucky for me the taxpayers are funding a Federal bailout.  I can take a few more lavish trips and get a final bonus before we go out of business!

Going out of business, oh well, I knew it was coming.  Fire everyone!

Average people want health insurance, why should I feel in any way obligated to help them?  I only laid them off, stole their 401k’s and pension funds, sold them tainted and dangerous products, put them and their children along with the country in debt and cost them their jobs to make myself a ton of money!  Why on earth should I pay any taxes to help the lazy poor?

Sound about right.  I’m surprised your not telling us all to eat cake cause it will make us feel better.  I just hope the flour or the cake mix is not what your company bought cheap from China!

Don’t forget, Americans fought a war to rid themselves of royalty and unfair taxes. We now have a democracy where the majority rules.  That majority is not in dollars but in people.  You the rich are the largest minority in the country.  Pause and think before you speak because history shows that the wrong words can cause you to loose your heads.

Be careful ultra rich!