Why Make $300,000 When $250,000 Is So Much More?
Rory Cooper /
The American dream used to consist of the one underlying principle that every generation had the opportunity to do better than the generation that preceded it. Sometimes this dream is realized in grand fashion as it is with our President, who was raised by a single mother with a father he barely knew living on another continent and who had access to school choice programs. Sometimes it simply means making a little more, living in a better neighborhood and sending your kids to a better school or even college through whatever opportunity exists.
Earlier this morning, Erin Burnett of CNBC said: “I just came back from Asia, and that’s a place where people talk about ‘Hey I made more money than my parents made’, and that’s the way this country used to feel. And we can go back to that again, where people have a broader optimism about where the country is going, and I think that’s what we’re suffering from. We can get that back.”
Erin is exactly right that the feeling in America today is less optimistic than it was even recently. However, it is unlikely that the nation will return to that perpetual state of hopefulness any time soon. Especially, when it makes more economic sense to earn less money in America, rather than do well and give it all to the government.
ABC News reports that upper income taxpayers are now searching for ways to cut their income rather than become a victim of President Obama’s agenda to penalize families making $250,000. It is unlikely that at any other time in American history, has a more compelling argument been made that is best to underachieve. That economic security means earning less money. And that the fear of the government targeting you as an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or even a moderately successful investor is a real and legitimate fear.
Take the 63 year old attorney in Lafayette, Louisiana who said: “We have to find a way out where we can make just what we need to just under the line so we can benefit from Obama’s tax plan,” She added, “why kill yourself working if you’re going to give it all away to people who aren’t working as hard?”