Dear Bernie. I’m Sorry I Am the Problem with America

I don't want to take anything away from entrepreneurs, but one thing that you need to accept when you get rich is this: the price of being rich is that no one gives a shit about your problems anymore. I'm sorry but it's true. It doesn't matter how hard you worked, and whether you had to perform self surgery to cut out your own spleen and sell it, once you are rich no one is going to care about your problems.

The fact is that Bernie Sanders is not targeting you as an individual, he's just using the rich as a symbol, and frankly, he's right. The wealth gap is not good for society, it's not good for the rich because it causes instability, and instability is bad for the existing power structure. Instead of taking it personally, recognize that A) your personal story is not necessarily indicative of any greater societal truth, and B) if you are rich you already have advantages that outweigh any tax penalty you may pay, so if taxes are a problem just focus on making more money instead of attempting to justify your own wealth (not because it's unjustified, but because no one gives a shit).

If you want to argue that higher taxes are bad because the government doesn't know what it's doing then I'm all for that, but it's a mistake for reach people to make a personal appeal—it's not anyone else's job to validate your worthiness; be humble, acknowledge your own luck, and then you may find that even as a rich person people will still listen to your opinion.

I pick the second perspective:

Bernie Sanders want to take a large part of my wealth through increase taxes. I earned that money through hard work and sacrifices. The people asking for handouts should work hard and sacrifice like I did.

vs.

There are people in this country who've worked equally as hard or harder than I have and have 1/10th my wealth and privilege. What are conditions in our system that make it so unfair and how can we even the playing field for them?

America needs to work for everyone. If you are motivated and smart and able bodied then you can probably make things work, and that is a great thing. Those who are disengaged, not all that smart, and or disabled also need to get by somehow.

Possibly the best analogy is to literacy. Getting our society to 90%+ literacy is extremely expensive and dominates public accounts in most US jurisdictions, but it is worth that investment many times over.

So also transitioning from work being the only recognized value to humanity itself being enough is going to be extremely expensive, but it will be worth it. Perhaps most important to remember is that those in need will not horde their gifts, but immediately circulate them in order to keep going, so the humiliating confiscation of taxation will result in swarms of new potential customers thus energizing enterpreneurship.

Sadly this did not get more debate or comments.

I'm not in his position, and it provides some insight, and yes it can be even compelling.

My "against" points would be that:

  -There is people working as hard as you do to keep afloat.
  -I'm totally positive on the adequate taxes for the rich.

While you cover your base, you don't cover for example why if banks knew mortgage industry were going to go broke they pushed for it. It doesn't cover how wall street were saved by devaluating US dollar and it doesn't cover all the people who were in charge and knew what were going on and how we don't know still who they are or why they are not in jail.

        They were playing with US economy.

You don't cover how IP protects medicines by preventing others from competing.

You don't cover how all big IT players foul around the game evading millions in taxes.

I'm not against you, I'm against you dropping oil in the sea, destroying china environment because it was cheaper to build there, not pay taxes and when environment is dead you can take all back to your alps house.

When I see those images of the future, with beautiful buildings with trees or underwater cities... I wonder if those are rich cities and everything else has been destroyed?

> But when I hear Bernie speak, I feel like I’m the problem with America. I’m one of those millionaires he mentions who should pay more taxes. I’m the bad guy.

While I empathize, this seems like an emotional problem on his end, instead of an issue with the actual message.

Given that there is no quote mentioned anywhere, I have to wonder if it mattered what was said, or if the issue is what he sees the man as representing.

Even if you agree with his points, the humble brag style is off putting.

TL;DR: The world is unfair, but anyone could work tirelessly for 15 years to overcome that, which makes it fair in the end.

Although I think the subtext is more like:

I created 100 jobs at some personal cost, so I'm off the hook for whatever unfairness I might be perpetuating in other ways.

whats with all the open letters lately? mostly all on medium too...