The Liberal Problem With the Kardashians

A recent poll indicated that liberals tend to watch reality and talent shows more often, while conservatives prefer occupation oriented shows. No, I don't mean aimless protesters. I mean shows such as Gold Rush, Flipping Out, or Storage Wars where people actually create wealth through risk and hard work.

Keeping Up With the Kardashians and that shows many spawn are exactly as described by the media. Yes, I've seen parts of it here and there. It is a show about relatively attractive people doing nothing in particular. These relatively attractive people get attention because one of them made a sex tape that was seen by millions and has dated a large number of professional athletes.

But, as we have seen, self-described liberals help to keep the show on the air. Does this mean that they approve?

Of course not. A group called Courage Campaign in California has decided, despite the fact that the Kardashians pay all of their taxes completely and in a timely manner (thus preventing any of them from being eligible to serve in the Obama Cabinet) that the Kardashians pay too little in tax money. They have launched a fight to make celebrities pay more.

Whenever states such as Maryland or New York launch such folly, they make their neighbors do backflips in appreciation. Such states have high opinions of themselves, believing that people would want to pay more for the privilege and fun of living there. They may gain in the short term, but lose in the long. Rich residents move away and few would choose to locate there.

This campaign also reflects a very liberal cultural snobbery. Conservatives who do not prefer to watch a show such as the Kardashians put on will still grudgingly respect the fact that they are creating wealth by responding to a market. Some may wish the market had better taste, but it does not and never has. The fact that they create wealth and employ people legitimately makes them valuable in the market.

But liberals think that they have too much money. They want to punish them for their success. That is a dangerous philosophy, no matter who you are referring to.

What Is Coming Down the Pike If We Do Not Win In November

Our nation's birth was conceived in a union of bizarre British ideas about representation and a tax protest. With anti-tax fervor so prominent in our past, it's always interesting to note how faithful Americans are about the idea of paying taxes. Certainly we all fear the IRS, but it is almost on the level of a moral imperative. Americans believe in paying taxes much like they obey the speed limit. Most will fudge as much as they dare, but not break the spirit of the law. Americans believe paying taxes is an important part of the social order.

This social consensus comes with the implied agreement that the government will not take too much from productive Americans. During an emergency, we might be OK with high rates of taxation so long as we understood that the measure was temporary. However when you raise taxes too high for too long, you are encroaching on the goodwill of the people.

The government does not want to transform our idea of tax paying from moral imperative to something that good Americans will skirt as a statement of liberty. Too much taxation combined with the use of those taxes to redistribute wealth will change the attitude of people in this country. Redistribution of wealth on a large scale is out and out theft. It is stealing from the productive to give to the non productive. Hard work should reward the individual who transfers his wealth to other hard working people, not the government and its beneficiaries.

So what will come if this redistribution program of Obama's is brought into law? First you will see Americans hiding their wealth as never before. Capital will fly offshore to safe banks who will protect their depositors. As taxes and government theft rise, public opinion of offshore options will move from negative to positive. For those of us with lower incomes, the earning of under the table wealth will increase. Businesses will be more apt to sneak trusted individuals onto the off the books payroll to give themselves a competitive advantage in a business unfriendly environment. Individuals will do more off the books work, such as landscaping, farm labor, minor contracting, tutoring and other forms of work to make ends meet as the federal governemnt confiscates more and more of their taxable income. Money that many people would declare in earlier times will be hidden now. The government will become more zealous in their attempt to capture this wealth; already some want the state to register yard and garage sales to get taxes from these operations. Of course governemnt zeal translates to a loss of liberty in cases such as these.

At the end, barring an actual civil revolt, one will see a functioning black market that the shrinking legitimate economy will depend upon. Government will tax more of the latter to try and keep up its revenues. Overall, America will lose the rest of its prosperity, sinking into an Eastern Europe circa 1970s condition of subsistence without prosperity.

This isn't a prophecy of the future, but a vision of what could happen if our taxes and spending keep rising while our voters do nothing to stop it.