Tea at Trianon: Why Does the Left Hate Success?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, May 4, 2023

Why Does the Left Hate Success?

From Washington Examiner:

Take the federal income tax, for example. Democratic leaders are fond of saying that the rich must pay their “fair share.” Yet, they never define what that magic number might be. In 2020, the top 1% of taxpayers earned 22.2% of America’s reported income yet paid 42.3% of federal income taxes. The top 50% of all taxpayers paid 97.7% of all federal individual income taxes, with the bottom 50% paying only the remaining 2.3%, per the Tax Foundation . So, what is the “fair share?”

It doesn’t stop with taxes. The Biden administration is implementing a rule next week that will force home buyers with good credit, regardless of income, to pay more for their mortgages to subsidize loans to higher-risk borrowers. Under this new rule, “consumers with lower credit ratings and less money for a down payment would qualify for better mortgage rates than they otherwise would have … experts believe that borrowers with a credit score of about 680 would pay around $40 more per month on a $400,000 mortgage,” according to Yahoo .

Did we learn nothing from the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007?

In California , utility companies are proposing to charge consumers a monthly fee based on income, with the lowest earners paying $15 per month and the highest earner paying $85 per month. It is unclear how California utility companies plan to obtain the financial information of their customers. Will the government provide them with copies of tax returns? Will they rely on self-reported income? Regardless, this type of class warfare only serves to drive people apart and create resentment.

I do not know when the land of opportunity became the land of punishment, division, and class warfare, but it has. (Read more.)

From Conservative Brief:

Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has announced his support for President Joe Biden and he has a plan for the government to confiscate cash. Speaking with Chris Wallace last week, he said that billionaires should not exist and that the government should confiscate funds before someone can become a billionaire.
“Are you basically saying that once you get to $999 million, the government should confiscate all the rest?” the host said to the senator.

“I’m saying that we should go back to a very progressive tax policy like what we had under Dwight D. Eisenhower,” the senator said.

“Over $1 billion basically all goes to the government?” the host said. (Read more.)