Upon reading about Mitt Romney receiving almost $375,000 in speaking fees in 2010-2011 and saying it "wasn't that much," many people, Democrats especially, pointed to that gaffe as a prime example of Romney not being in touch with the layperson.
I read a few articles pertaining to this and some member comments below the writing. When a conservative chimed in, his or her words generally sounded like this - "Romney is just a success. Why do liberals want to punish success? This jealousy astounds me."
I find this funny, yet sad, because the majority of people who utter such things aren't very well off themselves. However, they firmly believe in the American dream and if you work hard enough, you will be rewarded like Mitt Romney. However, this isn't always the case. Some people are born into wealth. Others catch a lucky break. Some have great connections. Others do work very hard for what they earn. In any case, it's ridiculous to claim that Democrats hate and want to punish success. They just want fairness. Romney also said he paid 15% when it comes to federal taxes, less than the middle class. Under Ronald Reagan, he would have needed to pay 50% (Reagan must have wanted to punish success).
These rich folks don't live on a one-person island where they're not effected by the people around them. They live in a country with over 300 million people. If the very rich don't give back to the government (or to charities, foundations, etc.) in order to hopefully help employ the middle- and lower-class, to progress our country in terms of education, the environment, technology, infrastructure, defense, etc., etc., etc., then we're going to collapse pretty quickly.
Must we be that greedy? If I made $100 million, do I REALLY need all of that money? How many cars and houses can I really buy? I can live a great life with more things than 99.9% of the people in this country and yet still help move our country forward by giving back. This isn't about the Democrats wanting to punish success. It's about some wanting to use their success to only benefit themselves and not the country at large. It kind of comes with the territory. How is a person on food stamps really going to find a way of giving money to the government to help progress our nation? Unless they want to wind up homeless, this isn't going to happen.
It's also about loopholes. Romney and others have taken advantage of these in order to cheat the government out of a large quantity of money. Again, it's about fairness, about generosity, about progression. It seems like pretty common sense when I think about it, but perhaps not so much to others.
I read a few articles pertaining to this and some member comments below the writing. When a conservative chimed in, his or her words generally sounded like this - "Romney is just a success. Why do liberals want to punish success? This jealousy astounds me."
I find this funny, yet sad, because the majority of people who utter such things aren't very well off themselves. However, they firmly believe in the American dream and if you work hard enough, you will be rewarded like Mitt Romney. However, this isn't always the case. Some people are born into wealth. Others catch a lucky break. Some have great connections. Others do work very hard for what they earn. In any case, it's ridiculous to claim that Democrats hate and want to punish success. They just want fairness. Romney also said he paid 15% when it comes to federal taxes, less than the middle class. Under Ronald Reagan, he would have needed to pay 50% (Reagan must have wanted to punish success).
These rich folks don't live on a one-person island where they're not effected by the people around them. They live in a country with over 300 million people. If the very rich don't give back to the government (or to charities, foundations, etc.) in order to hopefully help employ the middle- and lower-class, to progress our country in terms of education, the environment, technology, infrastructure, defense, etc., etc., etc., then we're going to collapse pretty quickly.
Must we be that greedy? If I made $100 million, do I REALLY need all of that money? How many cars and houses can I really buy? I can live a great life with more things than 99.9% of the people in this country and yet still help move our country forward by giving back. This isn't about the Democrats wanting to punish success. It's about some wanting to use their success to only benefit themselves and not the country at large. It kind of comes with the territory. How is a person on food stamps really going to find a way of giving money to the government to help progress our nation? Unless they want to wind up homeless, this isn't going to happen.
It's also about loopholes. Romney and others have taken advantage of these in order to cheat the government out of a large quantity of money. Again, it's about fairness, about generosity, about progression. It seems like pretty common sense when I think about it, but perhaps not so much to others.
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