House of Eratosthenes

What Phil Mickelson said, as he apologized for…well, I’m not sure what. He didn’t have to apologize for not paying his taxes. As I understand it, he apologized either for resenting his higher tax rate, for doing something about it, or for talking about it.

“I apologize to those I have upset or insulted and assure you I intend to not let it happen again.”

Full statement:

I certainly don’t have a definitive [tax] plan at this time, but like everyone else I want to make decisions that are best for my future and my family. Finances and taxes are a personal matter and I should not have made my opinions on them public. I apologize to those I have upset or insulted and assure you I intend to not let it happen again.

Milton Wolf is as flabbergasted as I am:

So let’s get this straight. A beloved law-abiding free American who brings joy to millions and seems never to have bothered anyone evidently forgot that he lives in Obamerica. He’s done well for himself but he should remember that he didn’t build that. How dare he “upset” and “insult” people by so selfishly expressing concern that his government stands ready to confiscate, err, tax away, 63% of his income.

Read that again: 63 percent of one American’s income.

Here’s what Phil Mickelson should have said:

America continues to amaze me. I still marvel that people pay me so much money for hitting a little white ball around a golf course. It’s not that I don’t work hard at my craft. I do. I take nothing for granted and work my tail off every day to get better, just like millions of Americans do at their crafts. And it’s not like I didn’t take risks. When so many people told me I should get a ‘real’ job, I held fast to my dream, no matter how unlikely it was, just like so many entrepreneurs in America have done who have made our lives immeasurably better. And yet I still marvel at it all.

But maybe it’s not so hard to understand. I earned $60 million dollars last year and not a single one of those dollars did I steal from anyone. Not a single one of those dollars did I weasel out of a corrupt system because I bribed — I mean, contributed to — some politician to pass a law that favors me. Not a single one of those dollars did I simply tax away from someone because I could.

Every single dollar that came my way was voluntarily given to to me. And people are not idiots. They don’t just give away their hard-earned dollars for nothing. Every dollar they gave me was in return for something that was worth more to them than a dollar, or they wouldn’t have given it up. Like I said, I marvel at the opportunities in America. Who would have thought so many people would find so much joy in watching a guy hit a ball with stick? But they do and so I will do my best to do everything I can to be worthy of them. Isn’t that the American way?

It breaks my heart that America is abandoning the American way of keeping government small so that individuals can become as big as their dreams. And it breaks my heart that my home state, the state I love, is chasing away so many hard-working people and wonderful businesses with their outrageously high taxes. It’s nothing less than a tragedy that the fastest growing population in America is former Californians and the fastest growing industry is former California businesses.

What’s worse, unless we change our ways, unless we stop all of America from adopting the failing California Blue model, I fear we will no longer be talking about former Californians so much as former Americans.

The pattern continues: With our fever yet unbroken, we treat weakness and need as some kind of a commodity to be exchanged for products and services, and strength, capability and service to others as some kind of a blight to be tolerated only churlishly, or not tolerated at all. Strength and weakness, each one treated as the other, as the opposite of what it truly is.

California will get deeper into financial trouble. The solution, again, will be higher taxes, and those proposing the higher taxes will, again, fail to take into account the exodus of the hated rich who simply do not want to be taxed that way.

That’s fine, except he makes most of his money through the goodwill of the public, that is, endorsements.
- Zachriel | 01/25/2013 @ 10:31
True. People are often seen avoiding the truth when they have a financial incentive to do so.
- mkfreeberg | 01/25/2013 @ 10:48
Well, even so, all those endorsement contracts are voluntary business deals between him and the companies. Certainly nobody, government or otherwise, forced Amgen and Pfizer or Lefty to do those Enbrel commercials you’re probably seeing all over the place. Apparently their stuff worked for his arthritis, Amgen and Pfizer corporate heard about it and said “Wanna do a ask-your-doctor ad for us?” and he said “Sure!” And he’s getting offered the Enbrel deal and the others because he’s well-known, and he’s well-known because he’s very good at hitting the little white ball around a golf course. So it goes back to the same place.

Right now, I’m one of the guys to whom he’s supposedly apologizing for being insensitive, and I say “Apologize? For what?” For being rich? He earned it, on the course and in the free market. For being required to pay more taxes for the current dysfunctional state, or what’s probably as a result of that requirement going to be an even more dysfunctional state? Perfectly reasonable. I’d like to think even Justice Holmes would question whether Californians were getting their money’s worth for their taxes. For considering the possibility of retiring, moving out of state or both to cut down his exposure to that requirement (not to mention the dysfunction)? Perfectly reasonable. You don’t get and stay rich by being stupid. For saying as much out loud? Perfectly reasonable, and perfectly within his rights. Frankly, he’s saying, and thinking about doing, what a lot of Californians have already done, for millions less reasons than Lefty. The people who are getting mad at him for being “insensitive” might instead usefully consider that.
- Rich Fader | 01/25/2013 @ 15:55
Rich Fader: I’m one of the guys to whom he’s supposedly apologizing for being insensitive, and I say “Apologize? For what?”

Sure. But many of his other fans may feel differently. People respond to endorsements because they admire or respect someone, and if he loses that respect, perhaps they feel he is being ungrateful, fair or not, then his brand is damaged.

Don’t worry, he won’t starve.
- Zachriel | 01/25/2013 @ 16:15
Not worried about him starving.

More worried about many other things.
- mkfreeberg | 01/25/2013 @ 16:22
Here is a clue. California is forcing people and businesses out because of the tax structure, the dysfunctional public policies, political correctness and just being plain dangerous. Fer goodness sake read Victor Davis Hanson’s posts about his farm in the central valley, crime, trash, drugs, etc. The illegal immigrants and the other failed cultures are turning the breadbasket of the country into a 4th world cesspit.

And BTW, Lefty is a highly decent man. Admired by his peers and fans because they see he is real.

He has a right as does any citizen to voice his opinion whether some like it or not.
- R Daneel | 01/25/2013 @ 21:07
R Daneel: He has a right as does any citizen to voice his opinion whether some like it or not.

Sure he does. And it won’t affect his ability to earn a living on the links, which is based on his play, not his personality. However, his fans also have a right to express their opinions, which may or may not impact his endorsement income.
- Zachriel | 01/26/2013 @ 07:55
He probably thought his job was to entertain people with a display of extraordinary athletic ability. If it turns out his job is to shill for the state’s redistributionist orthodoxy, he’ll have to re-evaluate the bargain. Maybe he’d like to make a little less money, but preserve the ability to speak his mind. If so, he can tell fans and sponsors to take a hike if they can’t bear hearing authority questioned, the poor wee things. Either way, he’ll do fine — but they’re in real trouble.
- Texan99 | 01/26/2013 @ 07:55
If this is about the right of “his fans” to express their opinions, those opinions should be defined, and that to me seems to be the big piece of the puzzle that is missing here.

What exactly is it that they are trying to say? Or, if they haven’t even bothered to say and this is yet another case of avoiding offense toward some made-up fictional person (not an unusual practice here in Cali), then what exactly is it that he is trying to anticipate?

I’m still lost on that. Oh, I think I have a good idea. But it is an idea sufficiently outlandish, that it would be rude of me to put it in someone else’s mouth — even if they don’t really exist. Someone should state the problem. Word for word.
- mkfreeberg | 01/26/2013 @ 08:05
Texan99: He probably thought his job was to entertain people with a display of extraordinary athletic ability.

Actually, Mickelson makes far more on endorsements than he does playing golf. It’s a package deal. His golfing and persona sell the endorsements. If the persona is damaged, it can cut his income substantially, more than the 13% he might save moving to a low tax state.

Most people probably don’t care, but if it hurts sales of endorsed products by a few percent, then that can drastically reduce profit margins, again, far more than the Mickelson’s personal tax savings. Sure, Mickelson has every right to publicly complain about taxes or move out of state, people have every right to buy or avoid products he endorses, and companies have every right to enter into endorsement contracts with whomever they think will sell their products best.

If Mickelson wants to just play golf, he can avoid all these problems. However, by becoming an endorser, he enters the world of sales. Most companies want to sell their toothpaste to liberals and conservatives, blacks and whites, to anyone with teeth.
- Zachriel | 01/26/2013 @ 08:41
Well, sure. If he wants to appeal to his sponsors’ customers by pretending he agrees with their political orthodoxy, he’ll have to parrot it, or at least impose a self-gag order on any dissenting views. It’s a question of how much the money means to him. It’s the same dilemma faced by bygone entertainers who dared to oppose Jim Crow laws, or the war. Some decided that the dignity of being able to speak the truth was important, while others thought discretion was the best financial policy.

Why should anyone buy an effective arthritis medication if he’d prefer to make a political statement by boycotting its manufacturer? Customers are free, too, just like celebrities. They can refuse to do business with heretics.
- Texan99 | 01/26/2013 @ 08:55
Texan99: It’s the same dilemma faced by bygone entertainers who dared to oppose Jim Crow laws, or the war.

Yup, standing up for rich people being taxed is just like risking being beaten or lynched for opposing segregation of people on the bottom of the economic ladder. Same thing.

Entertainers do not have the same dilemma, generally. People will go to Clint Eastwood movies, even if they don’t agree with his politics, as long as they find his movies entertaining. Mickelson will continue to make money playing golf, as long as he keeps winning. However, the vast majority of Mickelson’s income is from endorsements.

Most people probably don’t make much of it, and some certainly agree with Mickelson. However, it only takes a small percentage of consumers switching to the competing brand to have a big impact on profitability in many cases. Nevertheless, Mickelson should certainly speak his mind, if it is important to him, even if that means foregoing a large portion of his income.
- Zachriel | 01/26/2013 @ 09:16
[…] Made a New Word LXI How to Handle the Apologetic Obama Voter The Middle “What Mickelson Should Have Said” Science is Never Wrong How Liberals See Hillary’s Performance The “Acting Alone” […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 01/26/2013 @ 09:24
[…] among us have been noticing that, while a lot of widely-known events are game changers and should not be — in fact, shouldn’t even be widely-known — there are other such events that are […]
- I Made a New Word LXI | Right Wing News | 01/26/2013 @ 09:33
[…] among us have been noticing that, while a lot of widely-known events are game changers and should not be — in fact, shouldn’t even be widely-known — there are other such events that are […]
- I Made a New Word LXI | Rotten Chestnuts | 01/26/2013 @ 09:33
Point I think is being missed here: Mikkelson’s comments were not about “conservatives are right about everything and liberals have it all wrong.” His comments were more about, I am thinking about leaving the state because my taxes are high.

So if I understand the point that has now been repeatedly explained, even though I’m not aware that anybody showed they were failing to get it in the first place — that a substantial portion of Mikkelson’s income comes from endorsements and not from playing golf, and companies like to sell things to anybody whose money is good regardless of their position on the political spectrum — then, I am learning the following. It is a liberal position that the rich should pay just as much in taxes as the codified law demands that they should, they should not leave states or do anything else to avoid the liability, it is a transgression for them to communicate any intention of doing so, in fact, it is a transgression for them to even harbor the thought. All rich people are either “patriotic millionaires” or else they’re bad people.

I was not aware that the stated liberal position went quite that far. So I’ve learned something.
- mkfreeberg | 01/26/2013 @ 09:49
Zachriel, I think you are in danger of confusing the validity of a political opinion with its tendency to stand up for a class you find pitiable.
- Texan99 | 01/26/2013 @ 10:01
[…] as a Contaminant I Made a New Word LXI How to Handle the Apologetic Obama Voter The Middle “What Mickelson Should Have Said” Science is Never Wrong How Liberals See Hillary’s Performance The “Acting Alone” […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 01/26/2013 @ 10:56
Texan99: Zachriel, I think you are in danger of confusing the validity of a political opinion with its tendency to stand up for a class you find pitiable.

You compared the sacrifice of people who risked beatings and lynchings with the sacrifice of a golfer making tens-of-millions of dollars a year who might see his income reduced somewhat because people decide not to buy products he has endorsed. Same thing, like we said.

More seriously, he didn’t seem to actually be making a political point, but a personal one. That why, in retrospect, he didn’t pursue the point.

mkfreeberg: His comments were more about, I am thinking about leaving the state because my taxes are high.

Some people thought, fairly or not, he was whining and being disloyal to the community he has prospered in.

mkfreeberg: I was not aware that the stated liberal position went quite that far. So I’ve learned something.

It’s not necessarily a liberal position. Some people don’t like their golf heroes meddling in politics or what they might see, fairly or not, as his whining about his lot in life.
- Zachriel | 01/26/2013 @ 12:01
Some people thought, fairly or not, he was whining and being disloyal to the community he has prospered in.

Until somebody’s name can be fastened to such a sentiment, we can only speculate about their true motives. That, in turn, means we can only speculate about what line it is that Mikkelson crossed, or if he even crossed one at all.

It is very hard to put any conservative/liberal ideology by his statement, or by the objections to it, unless we either engage in this speculation or embiggen somewhat the catalog of issues & values known to us to be conservative or liberal. My tentative theory would have to be that it has become a liberal value to stop unfriendly information from getting around, by way of threats & punishment and various other means.
- mkfreeberg | 01/26/2013 @ 12:35
mkfreeberg: Until somebody’s name can be fastened to such a sentiment, we can only speculate about their true motives. That, in turn, means we can only speculate about what line it is that Mikkelson crossed, or if he even crossed one at all.

Didn’t say he crossed a line. Try reading some fan sites. Many people are actually supportive, but some don’t like how he interjected tax policy into golf, and a few think he was whining or ungrateful.
- Zachriel | 01/26/2013 @ 12:45
Do you have some detail to offer besides “try reading some fan sites”?

I’m defining “crossed a line” rather loosely, as in, if he didn’t cross one then it’s really not very clear why anybody is discussing this at all. Some kind of heat must have been generated somewhere. And it’s rather silly to accuse him of interjecting tax policy into golf, if the tax policy is going to have some kind of effect on where he might be living. As a fellow Californian, I would find it exceptionally difficult to report back on a concerned friend or relative “how are things going lately” without getting into California’s tax policy. It taints everything. It’s not at all like some television show that’s started sucking or some local library or laundromat that has been closed down.
- mkfreeberg | 01/26/2013 @ 12:58
Did I compare a sacrifice with another sacrifice? I think I compared one heresy with another. You just like one more than the other. There should be a better justification for confiscatory tax policies than that they don’t typically result in lynchings.
- Texan99 | 01/26/2013 @ 13:07
[…] am more-or-less entirely confused with this Phil Mickelson episode, which can only be described, to my great annoyance and continued confusion, in […]
- Information as a Contaminant | Rotten Chestnuts | 01/27/2013 @ 05:50
[…] am more-or-less entirely confused with this Phil Mickelson episode, which can only be described, to my great annoyance and continued confusion, in […]
- Information as a Contaminant | Right Wing News | 01/27/2013 @ 06:01
mkfreeberg: Do you have some detail to offer besides “try reading some fan sites”?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=mickelson+fans+response+to+tax+issue
- Zachriel | 01/27/2013 @ 06:19
I meant, by that, something more specific.
- mkfreeberg | 01/27/2013 @ 06:34

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

“What Mickelson Should Have Said”Friday, January 25th, 2013

“What Mickelson Should Have Said”
Friday, January 25th, 2013