Friday, November 18, 2011
Hypocritical "Patriotic Millionaires" Demand Congress Raise Their Taxes But Won't Voluntarily Pay More
Washington — "Two dozen “patriotic millionaires” traveled to the Capitol on Wednesday to demand that Congress raise taxes on wealthy Americans.
The Daily Caller attended their press conference with an iPad, which displayed the Treasury Department’s donation page, to find out if any of the “patriotic millionaires” were willing to put their money where their mouth is."
Grouch: Are their reactions not 100% predictable? And supremely hypocritical? What fool would give the government extra money that he wasn't forced to give? The name of the game is to pay the government as few taxes as legally possible because you know they are going to do a bunch of stupid and wasteful things with the money. Better to keep it and grow a business that employees more people or give it to a low overhead charity who will the dollars are put to good use.
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There is much irony in not being willing to pay more individually (voluntarily) yet advocating to pay more as a group. I find it very disingenuous. If you truly believe what you say, then you should act regardless of whether you have support of everyone because you will clearly not have it on this issue. Right now, this is just insolent noise: a bunch of people making nice-sounding talking points without taking action on their convictions. Lead by example!
ReplyDeleteI see why this stunt makes the millionaires appear hypocritical. But it's really a fallacy to claim that they are based on this. I'm not saying they are definitely completely legitimate and without fault. But what takes place in that video is less about them being hypocrites and more about the reporter hoodwinking people in my view.
ReplyDeleteI explain why in “Patriotic Millionaires”: Demanding an Assurance Contract Does Not Imply Hypocrisy if anyone is interested.
@Shawn, couldn't agree more.
ReplyDelete@systemsthinker, when someone pulls publicity stunts like this don't be surprised if some creative individual exposes them. If they truly feel like they "owe" the government more in taxes then let them voluntarily pay more or fire up their own Kickerstater-like site for philanthropic gazillionaires to do their Patriotic duty. If they all need to hold hands and jump at the same time, this is a great way to satisfy their wishes.
Grouch,
ReplyDeleteI have no problem if some creative individual exposes them. The problem is Fields did not expose anything. She claims to have exposed them as hypocrites, but the fact is she did not. Their responses to her are not evidence of hypocrisy however hard she tries to spin it as if they are.
There may indeed be problems with this group's approach and there are ways to test for and expose those if they are there, but Fields failed to do that.
I would be eager to hear their responses if, instead of this stunt, as you propose, she had suggested a Kickstsarter-like site. That would have been more revealing than what she did.