I'm with Holmes

[walkitout]

I have mixed feelings about the jurist, of course, he was complicated man in a difficult time.

However, on this issue, I agree with him: taxes _are_ the price we pay for civilized society, and I would go a little further and say you get what you pay for.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/opinion/20krugman.html

I like Krugman. But I often feel like he's sort of pussyfooting around some of the main issues, perhaps because everyone from slightly right of center all the way to whatever passes for "extreme" left wing in this country seems to be terrified of engaging in "class warfare". One of my grandfathers was a wobbly. And he was a conservative jackass, at least until a series of strokes shut him up and eventually killed him. I generally speaking just don't get political discourse. I don't know if it's because I'm spectrum-y, or because I was raised in a time warp or what. But I don't get it.

See, I think that if you're going to be accused of something anyway, and the thing is worth doing, you might as well quit stalling and just Go There. I feel like this is a baby step towards Going There. The rich are a minority in this country. We can take what they took from us since the Reagan rewrite of the tax code and redistribute it in a more equitable manner. We just have to be willing to do it. Even if we think we might some day be rich.

Even if we are rich. Right now.

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this? http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/09/in-which-mr-deling-responds-to-someone-who-might-be-professor-todd-henderson.html

thanks for the link

[walkitout]

Yowza. I really like that blogger. Altho I don't read him regularly, I feel like I should. But that's really quite shocking! Apparently, the maybe-professor didn't get the memo, you know, the one that says if you make way more than most people, you aren't allowed to complain about how broke you are. It tempts people to take more drastic action.

Re: thanks for the link

[walkitout]

Guy pulled the post while standing by its contents. I think the University of Chicago and its law school in particular places are awful crummy places in general, but I'm still a little surprised by this guy; I thought they were hiring people who were at least a _little_ more perspicacious than that (vocabulary word of the day -- had to get the correct spelling and everything!).

http://truthonthemarket.com/2010/09/20/im-sorry/

I would expect the guy who pulled the original post for privacy reasons would leave the preemie out of the non-apology. And I would be wrong.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

By the way, I have always had a soft spot for Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., because in some of his pictures (the ones after he had white hair) he looks just like my dad (except my dad has never grown his mustache to quite such a luxuriant state, and his face is not quite so long). We heard about it a lot the year OWHJr got on a stamp.