A letter to the editor (sic throughout) on my recent piece about Initiative 1098:

Since A. Birch Steen is on leave please let this humble scribe try to fill in a gap. Judging by the article “TAX THE FILTHY RICH,” Eli Sanders 9/9/2010, there is good reason to call this rag The Toilet Paper, for publishing such excrement. Mr. Sanders must have a fine liberal education for he obviously knows how to feel but not think.

Mr. Sanders feeble attempt at class warfare falls far short of intellingent journalism. Perhaps thats an oxymoron but we will labor on.

It is easy to quantify the well to do among us however lumping in every kid who works part time at McDonalds, or has a summer, work study job, or is simply unemployable is no way to calculate the effect of taxes on the great unwashed. There is no sales tax on food, rent, or dope. Sales tax can be optional, make a sandwich instead of burgering your way to obesity and poverty. Maybe that sets the bar too high for the victim class but there is a ring of truth to it. There are however taxes on beer and cigarettes most of which are purchased by the low income folk. In addition they pay no federal income tax and most likely consume more public services than the filthy rich. The filthy rich however pay income tax through the nose and please no dumb comments about write offs; you have to spend to get a write off or depreciation. By the way, rich most often means they worked harder, studied more and didn’t buy the dope, cigarettes and beer.

Look at all those Beamers and Porsches out there, the drivers are supporting the state.

Contrary to Mr. Sanders poor research, there has not been an income tax in Washington because the legislature is feeble, rather an income tax is forbidden by the state constitution. The people of Washington have voted an income tax down seven times since 1935. The overwhelming bulk of the money backing this state income tax is from public employee unions.

Anyone who believes the tax junky legislature will not lower the bar on this tax is suffering from a terminal case of cranial rectitis. On top of lowering the tax bar they will re-raise the sales, B&O and property tax and then tell us how badly they feel.

As far as Mr. Gates goes he is either in his dotage and or so guilty about his life of privilige he has forgotten that we the people work for wages, not charge hundreds per hour.

Oh yes, I am not a member of the rich. I just hurt myself by occasionally reading and thinking.

FP Deeny

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

32 replies on “Regarding My “Feeble Attempt at Class Warfare””

  2. Right, I’m unemployed with $30,000 in student loans because I bought beer, cigarettes, and “dope.” I can’t wait for his generation to fucking die off already.

  3. tl’dr

    Old people should shut up. When they were kids, the top tax rate for the rich was 90 percent. Ninety percent.

    It was lowered to 70 percent by a Democrat.

  6. Besides “idiot”, is there an official term for non-rich people who vote against their own interests either because they think they believe the simplistic “flat tax”-y hype or think they are going to accidentally become rich (tax-revenue-enhancing lottery tickets?) and not want to give any of it up?

    To be fair, most of the people I’ve encountered who share approximately this belief are more like Stockholm-Syndromed underemployed people who believe that rich people (their employers) will be nice to them if we don’t tax them and move their jobs away if we do. (and the rest of the rationalization is reverse-engineered from that fear)

  9. Really? The poor use most of the public services? Well-off people don’t use sewers and roads? They don’t have children in schools? They derive no benefit from public parks or libraries? They never, ever call the police or the fire department?

    God, I hate this tired rant. But there’s a way to make both old Deeny and me happy; Deeny wants those who earned their wealth to keep more of it. OK, I can get behind that, on one condition. Fuck those who inherit wealth. What did they do for society? Bring back the days of the 90% inheritance taxes for the third generation. Why should anyone who has accomplished nothing in their lives inherit a life of privilege from their grandparents? That just creates a permanent oligarchy, a society of Paris Hiltons and Ryan Blethens.

  13. @9- Paris Hilton actually has done things that earned money. OK, she did things that only earn the girls on Aurora $20, but still I’ve met rich people who did less to deserve their money.

  16. Well, Mr. (or Ms) FP Deeny, I noticed you didn’t even try to refute Mr. Sander’s actually-based-on-facts first two lines:

    Washington State has the most regressive taxes of any state in the country. In Washington, poor people pay 17.3 percent of their income in taxes, while the filthy rich pay only 2.6 percent of their income in taxes.

    That’s fair? You defend such a system?

  18. @14- The majority of Northern Aurora is North of Fremont. The majority of the hooker activity has always been North of Fremont, given that a good chunk of the Fremont section of Aurora is far above ground.

  20. ahh, the feudal mind of a serf.

    so what if they worked harder (i know a lot that didn’t)? they still have more ability to pay to support this civilization.

    and it’s the civilization – sewers, cops, firemen, EMTs, etc. that keep the enraged poor from burning down your mcmansions and eating your pedigreed pets.

  22. I love how people always say that the poor use more services than the rtich. I don’t imagine that the poor get much use out of the SEC, or the FDIC, or as much police protection as the rich, or use the roads as much, or take advantage of Pell grants, or the Commerce Department, or the Trade Representative, or have the fire department to protect their non-existent property, or any number of government services that the rich get such an enourmous benefit from the government providing.

  23. hoity toity! bitch!

    “By the way, rich most often means they worked harder, studied more and didn’t buy the dope, cigarettes and beer.”

    Oh! Snap!

    “Oh yes, I am not a member of the rich. I just hurt myself by occasionally reading and thinking.”

    I’m an expert so poo poo.

    FUCK THE RICH THAT GET RICH ON MY CHEAP LABOR AND LEAVE US TO ROT. THAT is fucking class warfare bitch. Not by what we say, by what the rich DO.

  25. I support the new income tax initiative.

    But the anti-rich sentiment here on SLOG is tiresome, pathetic, and is almost entirely a function of ignorance, envy, and insecurity. Stop mistaking your personal hangups about money for some righteous political cause.

  26. I wish it was a steadfast rule that hard work, education, and healthy choices guaranteed success. That would make the world more fair than it is now.

  27. @25 I read the comments as a balance to the posted letter. Most of them are just saying that the rich use public services, the poor also work hard, and money isnt always deserved/earned. It’s not anti-rich, it’s refuting Deeny’s comments about the poor.

  30. My Brother-in-law was railing against this tax. I asked my sister for a loan, cause if they’re making over $400,000, they must be doing pretty good!

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