House of Eratosthenes

Lefty blogger Steve Benen had an exciting day day yesterday, enjoying two of the big-font links on the front page of Memeorandum. After reading his work, though, I have to wonder if Memeorandum is being managed by his mother or something. What a bizarre way liberals have of “proving” things they want proven. In this case, Benen puts forward the notion, not that the 53 percent quotient which is the selection of persons who pay federal income taxes should be bigger, but that maybe it should be smaller.

I should qualify that, since this is a writer who chooses his words not so much carefully or skillfully, but in an “oily” way…you’ll see what I mean, below. He doesn’t take the responsibility of “putting forward the notion,” what he puts forward is a crafty assemblage of words that powerfully persuade the casual reader to think this notion.

This would, of course, damage the progressive argument that our tax system is insufficiently punitive against the hated rich. But the friendly-fire is a small price to pay for Benen, who just wants to laugh at people. In this case, for thinking they pay federal income taxes when they really don’t.

There are all kinds of problems with the right’s [“We Are The 53%”] approach here, including the fact that they seem to want to increase working-class taxes and also seem entirely unaware of the fact that it was Republican tax cuts that pushed so many out of income-tax eligibility in the first place. There’s also the small matter of some of those claiming to be in “the 53 percent” aren’t actually shouldering a federal income tax burden at all, but are apparently unaware of that fact.

Ooh! He’s got a link! Let’s click it open. His entire argument rests on this “fact,” after all, which he explicitly calls a “fact.” Well, most of his argument does anyway…definitely more than 53% of it. And I don’t see anything on Benen’s page that provides support for the idea that the 53% needs to be tapered down, so let’s open a new browser tab and find out what support is available for this “fact.”

We are taken to a blog called, simply, “A plain blog about politics” and the post in question is called “That 53% Tumblr.” The part that apparently made an impression on Benen, is:

…the other story in the “53%” group is that I’m pretty confident that a substantial portion of them…don’t actually pay income taxes, and therefore are not, in fact, part of the 53% of households who do. For example, this citizen claims to be a college senior working “30+ hours a week making just barely over minimum wage.” Which is great and all, but if that’s all he’s got he’s not paying any income tax. Just as a guess, I’d be surprised if any fewer than 10% of the posters are actually income-tax free, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s about 50/50.

What I’d be curious about is what some of these folks would say if they realized that they’re not actually part of “the 53%.” Of course, to be fair they all do pay taxes; they just — perhaps — don’t pay income taxes. [emphasis mine]

Now from where I sit, “A plain blog” hasn’t done anything wrong here at all, in fact his hypothesis makes good sense to me. He doesn’t claim to have proven anything, he’s mostly just questioning things. His one definite statement, “if that’s all he’s got he’s not paying any income tax,” is true so far as I know…and if it’s not true in that particular individual’s case for some reason, I’d agree he probably needs to go see a tax professional.

Now Benen, too, could perhaps be regarded as mostly ship-shape if you read his letters and words with surgical precision, as if you’re reading a statement from Bill Clinton containing the word “is.” But the spirit of it is just plain phony. What’s it mean to you, in common-sense land, when you read a statement like “There’s also the small matter of some of those claiming to be in ‘the 53 percent’ aren’t actually shouldering a federal income tax burden at all.” Yes he uses the word “claiming.” “A plain blog”‘s link is not working for me, so I don’t know first-hand what this person is claiming or how he’s claiming it. Is this a reference to the person being part of the movement?

The title of Benen’s piece is “about those 53 percent,” which certainly offers a powerful nudge in the direction of concluding that a quotient is to be subjected to challenge. Seems to me, if Benen’s beef is that the group should be named differently because there are people in the membership sympathetic to the message, but who do not pay federal income taxes…it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Is he challenging the percentage figure, or something else? Does he even know what he’s challenging?

But the bigger problem is with the proof of this “fact.” Benen is known to me, from past experience I recall only in the hazy outline of the lessons learned but not in the details, as a voice often indulging in patterns like these: He seems to be assembling these posts for the benefit of fellow liberals who want to dredge up some more talking points to use against conservatives at social functions, in discussions in which details & facts are not going to be examined too closely. And, perhaps as a result of this, a lot of his “facts” turn out to rely on some guy somewhere thinking something and saying “I wouldn’t be surprised if.”

A bigger problem? If I were ever part of the 99% and found myself skimming over the posts in the 53% tumblr for myself…I dunno, maybe this is just me being weird or something…but, just speaking for myself, I’d see a lot more than just some isolated opportunities to write deceptive lefty blog posts with oily wording to beat up on the tumblr people. There is a lesson ambling to the forefront as you read the pages from these fifty-three-percenters. Actually, it sort of reaches out of the monitor and smacks you. It’s not a new lesson by any means: You’re the captain of your own vessel in this big ocean called life, you have options, you have opportunities, there are things you can do. Some of them aren’t as sociable as marching on Wall Street, some of them are boring, some of them might involve taking off your headphones and maybe wearing some job-interview-acceptable clothes now & then. But the opportunities are there.

Takes a certain mindset to protest. A better, stronger, more advanced civilization does not always lie in that direction; maybe what we’re learning here is, more often than not, that’s where the slackers go. Nope, not saying I can prove that. Just a gut feel.

One of local Missouri group “The Nace Brothers” biggest hit is appropriate to what the primary point of the “53 ers” response to the “99’ers” ….

Quitcher Bitchin’
- philmon | 10/12/2011 @ 08:11
Damn. I never realized just how appropriate that song is today!

You say you wake up before the dawn
You work all day until your day is done
You never have no time for fun
~ain’t that bad.

You gotta bran new house and a car for the wife
You say you’ll be paying for the rest of your life
That’s all you’ve got to show for your trouble and strife
~ain’t that sad.

There’s alot of people in exotic places that spend all day tryin’ to feed their faces
They’d love a shot at what you got
So you better hold on while you can.

Chorus:
Cause it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. Write it all down in a suicide letter
You can’t take the heat in the kitchen……ah quitcher bitchin

You’re an outta work actor fishin’ for a job
Your bobber’s in the water but it just won’t bob.
You say you gotta hob knob with all the snobs
~well ain’t that bad.

You finally get some work now you’re in a hurry
You’re in a movie with Bill Murray
You get there and the films all blurry.
Ain’t life grand.

There’s a lot of people in exotic places that spend all day tryin’ to feed their faces.
They’d love a shot at what you got
So you better hold on while you can.

Chorus:
Cause it’s gonna get worse before it gets better, Write it all down in a suicide letter
You can’t take the heat in the kitchen…..ah quitcher bitchin
- philmon | 10/12/2011 @ 08:21
This is leftist “argumentation” in a nutshell.

I once had a similar experience. Back in 2007 or so, an outraged lefty acquaintance forwarded me that thing about Exxon (I think it was) paying no corporate income tax. It had lots of links, so it sure looked plausible, but as I was in between work projects at the time, I decided to follow the links out.

Hoooo-boy! Turns out that progressives had linked to other progressives, who had linked to moonbats, who had linked to bloggers, who had linked to a Forbes Magazine blog post which claimed this…. only to take it back in the very next post.

I sent the corrected link on to my acquaintance, along with some links to Exxon’s financials suggesting that in fact they’d paid a shitload of taxes (it’s amazing what’s on the internet when you understand that SEC filings are matters of public record).

My acquaintance’s response? Yeah, but it’s all true anyway, since Exxon’s a huge corporation, and the tax code has all kinds of breaks for fatcats, and Halliburton, and George W. Booooooshhh!!!!!! etc. Also, probably, because of Teh Racism, but I’d quit reading long since.

In other words: I feel it must be true, and I really really really (really really!) want it to be true, and therefore it must be true. And as for your so-called “facts”… shut up, he explained.

It’s all just a big circle jerk masquerading as rationality.
- Severian | 10/12/2011 @ 09:41
…the other story in the “53%” group is that I’m pretty confident that a substantial portion of them…don’t actually pay income taxes, and therefore are not, in fact, part of the 53% of households who do. For example, this citizen claims to be a college senior working “30+ hours a week making just barely over minimum wage.” Which is great and all, but if that’s all he’s got he’s not paying any income tax. Just as a guess,

Of course, if you’ve read Sowell … and I know you have, you’ve been introduced to the fact that that top 1% isn’t the same group of people from year to year. Oh, sure, there are some persistent members. And the same is true of the 53%.

The college senior working 30+ hours a week at the minimum wage job, posting “I am the 53%”? Well he may not be now, but he certainly intends to be, soon, and chances are, he will be because of his apparent attitude.

In 1991, I was pulling down a whopping $20K a year. The two or three years before that, it was more like half of that. Now it’s over 3 times that. Even with only my income counted I’m in the top 65% of households. With my wife’s income we’re in the top 20%. But we won’t be next year when she’s retired. We know that. And we’re good with it. Because we’ve planned for it.

When we first met, our combined incomes wouldn’t have put us anywhere near this. This is how it works.
- philmon | 10/12/2011 @ 10:37
[…] questions?” I couldn’t summarize it any better.) There’s a growing meme that the 53% aren’t really part of the 53% either, that many of them make no income tax contribution on the federal level. Presumably it’s […]
- When 53 > 99 | Blog of the Nightfly | 10/12/2011 @ 14:38
I’m in the 53% too, and I must be doin’ sumthin’ wrong. I’m STILL payin’ taxes and I’ve been retired more than a few years. I’ve had to increase withholding on my USAF pension twice in the last two years to avoid having to write My Favorite Uncle a multi-thousand dollar check every April 15th; these days I only write a $1,000 check, or slightly less. I would have thought a pensioner drawing Social Security (50% of which is taxed, thank you), military retirement, and a pittance of a civilian pension (I’ve run up bigger bar tabs than the monthly remittance HP/EDS sends me… no shit, really) would catch SOME sort o’ break on income taxes… but noooo.

What am I doin’ wrong?
- bpenni | 10/13/2011 @ 08:20
It’s got to do with what is by far the biggest reason I continue to promote my “You can’t vote if you don’t pay taxes” campaign: Government’s most detrimental and distinguishing failure is lack of accountability in money management. Even when there is just the faintest whiff of an appearance that it has some, it turns out to be a complete illusion.

Rule 1: If there isn’t enough money in the kitty, it’s the fault of the taxpayers for not paying enough.
Rule 2: When in doubt, refer to Rule 1.
- mkfreeberg | 10/13/2011 @ 08:53
When you can just print it up, it’s monopoly money to you.
- philmon | 10/13/2011 @ 09:26

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“About Those 53 Percent”Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

“About Those 53 Percent”
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011