Self-declared socialists like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have long decried billionaires as evil creatures who stand in the way of “hardworking people” achieving their dreams, and otherwise make life miserable for the proverbial “99 percent” of Americans.
While the aforementioned Three Stooges continue to preach themselves silly in their respective demands for taxing the ever-loving hell out billionaires, Elon Musk’s $43 billion hostile takeover bid for Twitter has sent the left into histrionic meltdown. Hence, one MSNBC analyst is now calling on Congress, presumably to “abolish billionaires.” Oh, the hypocrisy! But we’ll get there,In a matter of minutes.
MSNBC political analyst Anand Giridharadas made the ridiculous comment — along with other silliness — Monday morning on Twitter.
Elon Musk is one reason why billionaires should be abolished.
Asking them to chip in their fair share isn’t enough. Regulating them isn’t enough.
This concentrated ability is only possible when people have the permission to do so. [sic]They will undoubtedly influence every form of power and make economic power more widespread.
Couple of things, which we’ll get to, but manspread?What does it mean? that? I get it; I’m just pointing to the silliness.
Elon Musk is one reason why billionaires should be abolished.
Asking them to chip in their fair share isn’t enough. Regulating them isn’t enough.
People who have such concentrated influence will invariably be able to spread their economic power over all forms of power.
— Anand Giridharadas @ The.Ink (@AnandWrites) April 14, 2022
There are three issues. First, the notion that the left fancies itself as the arbiter of what is a “fair share” and what is not, is not only wrong; it is scary as hell.
Second, how authoritarian to believe it is the federal government’s right to “allow” Americans to accumulate wealth or influence. It’s not 1984ish.
Third, this guy — as is the case with all liberals — could not be more hypocritical. What would be the left’s reaction if George Soros launched a hostile bid to buy Fox News? Giridharadas would use Soros to ask Fox for billionaires. No.
Giridharadas wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in June 2021 titled “Warren Buffett and the Myth of the ‘Good Billionaires’,” He explained why he dislikes billionaires.
Warren Buffett is the best kind of billionaire. He is not a Zuckerbergian savior nor Musky provocateur, nor a Bezosist space cadet or Sacklerian undertaker. He appears to be quiet, modest, indifferent towards money, philanthropic and critical of the system which allowed him to rise.
Au contraire, believes Giridharadas.
Unfortunately, I have to say that Buffett is the most dangerous type of billionaire. Good Billionaires are among the most dangerous billionaires. They make it appear that the problem is in the system’s distortion, when the real problem is in the system itself.
[..]
There is no way to be a billionaire in America without taking advantage of a system predicated on cruelty, a system whose tax code and labor laws and regulatory apparatus prioritize your needs above most people’s.
Even noted Good Billionaire Mr. Buffett has profited from Coca-Cola’s sugary drinks, Amazon’s union busting, Chevron’s oil drilling, Clayton Homes’s predatory loans and, as the country learned recently, the failure to tax billionaires on their wealth.
Anand Giridharadas’s view on billionaires is not important. His views also influence the thinking of the zero-sum left. All billionaires are bad — because every billion dollars “hoarded” by billionaires is a billion dollars “robbed” from hardworking, everyday Americans.
How do ordinary Americans see billionaires?
Interestingly, though likely due to the incessant anti-billionaire drumbeat on the left, a growing number of Americans aren’t all that sure that billionaires are a good thing. Pew Research’s 2021 survey revealed the following:
About three in ten Americans now believe that the existence of people with personal fortunes exceeding a million dollars is bad for America. This compares to the 25% who said the same thing back in January 2020.
Over the same time, the percentage of people who believe that having billionaires is good for the country has fallen from 19% to 15 percent.
The narrow majority of Americans (55%), continue to believe that billionaires do not represent a good or bad thing for the nation. This is similar to what 58% of Americans said last year.
While there has always been —and always will be — a substantial number of wealth-envious people on the planet, the relevant question here is how the Republican Party can more effectively combat the left’s “evil billionaire” narrative. As a bit of an analytical person, I believe by driving home the facts — Mathematical and mathematical.
As noted by The Tax Foundation in March 2021 — based on data from the IRS:
According to the latest IRS data for 2018—the year following enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)—the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid $616 billion in income taxes.
This represents 40 percent of income taxes that have been paid since 1980. It is also a greater share than the combined tax burden of the top 90 percent (which amounts to about 130 million taxpayers).
Bernie? Lizzie? Mr. Giridharadas?
Um, @SenSanders? @SenWarren? https://t.co/B5fdMVcyTZ pic.twitter.com/UE1az5Kpbh
— Hold My Beer (@RealLibSmacker) April 14, 2022
Bottom line:
Not dissimilar to Democrats rushing to microphones and TV cameras within nanoseconds of mass shootings to demand stricter gun-control laws, the left is pandering to fellow leftists who believe Elon Musk’s involvement with Twitter threatens to end America as they know it. And to a degree, they’re right.
Twitter is largely a left-wing cesspool, and if it can be “fixed,” that’s a good thing for advocates of free speech — which we all know the radical left is anything but. The question now is: Mr. Giridharadas who is again the authoritarian? I’ll wait.
Incidentally, I will now become an Elon Musk-free zone — exactly as I became a “The Slap”-free zone — unless something Really bizarre happens.
That said, check out RedState’s latest related coverage:
Elon Musk: The Empire Strikes back
Liberals Absolutely Lose It Over Elon Musk’s Hostile Takeover Bid of Twitter
Elon Lays Down His Agenda in Letter to Twitter Heads – and It’s Glorious
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