Reply #14: A common refrain.

[TreasonousBastard]

I missed the recent discussion on this, but the theme is regularly raised from the dead.

Every so often John Stossel, or someone even less reputable, comes up with these stories describing how the problem is simply that the rich don't have enough money and the poor have too much.

Demonizing the poor accomplishes several things:

Primarily, it takes the heat off of the rich, and stops us from asking why they end up with our money. Class warfare with the have enoughs against the have barely enoughs and don't have nearly enoughs is vastly preferable to them.

Poverty is your own damn fault, and it's entirely up to you to avoid it. No one has any obligation to you if you can't find a way to pay your bills.

Everyone with more money than you deserves every penny of it. They earned it, and no one inherited it, got a good job by knowing someone, happened to luck out by having a skill in demand at the time, or otherwise hit one of life's innumerable lotteries.

The enemy is the tax collector, not the bill collector, not your boss who wants to underpay you or send your job to Bangalore, and certainly not the business that wants you to need to pay more for stuff you shouldn't need and transfer more wealth to the needy wealthy.