House of Eratosthenes

At the last of four events on Rep. Paul Ryan’s “listening tour” of his district Thursday, he called on a man in the front row of a high school auditorium, then instantly recognized him.

“You changed clothes!” Ryan told Steve Jozefczyk. The 54-year old salesman from Franklin, Wis., had asked Ryan several critical questions from the front row of an event six hours earlier in Waterford, when he wore a shirt and tie. In Greenfield, it was a black “Faux News” parody T-shirt.

Josefczyk admitted trying to trick Ryan into calling on him again.

So as near as I can figure it, this inexplicably-impassioned movement for higher taxes — high taxes are awesome, don’t you know that? — is a pie with three slices.

– People who are actually paid to drive the agenda, usually by George Soros
– People who Want To Be A Part Of This Thing…and are not paid…
– People who stand to benefit in some other way.

The ones who are part of the first slice have nothing to say that is worth saying, of course, since they’re paid to say it. The ones who are part of the second slice are not in any position to lecture me or anybody else about what makes financial sense, since they’re doing for free what others are being paid good money to do.

That third slice of people would be people who work in the public sector and are just worried silly about layoffs. They, too, are not in a position to educate or condescend to others about things money-related, since their logic is too simple to be sound: Raise taxes, bring in more money, layoffs avoided.

When a host is only so big, the parasite can be only so big. At some point, the parasitic growth must be limited in one way or another. This is a universal truth. I can understand how it might be a little difficult to see when you’re worried about your alms, or your pottage, or your non-producer’s paycheck or whatever. But it remains a universal truth: All parasites can feed on their respective hosts only so much, only to so great an extent relative to the host’s mass.

The parasite is at the point of desperation, that it must put in plants like Steve Jozefczyk — it has probably been at this point for a long time. I’m not sure what slice he’s in. I don’t suppose it very much matters. The parasite is desperate, that’s the point. More desperate than Congressman Paul Ryan.

Not desperate to survive, it must be noted; desperate to grow.

Update: There is a fourth slice completely unrelated to the person’s system of financial dependence or interdependence: Just plain ol’ tall poppy. The jealousy that somehow escapes ever being called jealousy, the emotional bilge. Those who believe “greed” is a word that describes wanting to hang on to what’s yours, but somehow does not describe lusting after what’s not.

It works like this: Do a good deed for a stranger, there is a social expectation that the stranger express gratitude. This expectation depends, in large part, on whether you were required to do it. Admittedly, that’s not a conclusively determining factor. It’s a free country, the stranger can thank you or not thank you in any case.

But ya know, if it’s plain to see you didn’t have to do it, it takes a real dick to just go barreling along without stopping to give some kind of acknowledgement. And so, you know, as we are allowed by our fellow motorists to merge in ahead of them, we wave. From one car to another car — not the most likely forum for etiquette and niceties. We still do it because people are helping where they are not required to.

But if someone is only meeting an obligation of theirs by helping you, acknowledgement is not quite so expected. You’ll still do it if your Momma raised you right. But if not…well, that’s okay. The first one is like littering. This one is kind of like leaving the litter where it is after someone else dropped it there.

So I think these fourth-slice people want to feel good about themselves, by making it much less likely anybody will ever do anything else better. If we’re all required to help each other by means of taxes…we become a society where nobody, or hardly anybody, goes out of their way willingly to help each other. Nobody owes anybody any acknowledgement or debt of gratitude for anything. We all just owe our taxes and that’s it.

In Greenfield, it was a black “Faux News” parody T-shirt.

The people who refer to the news network that way DO know that ‘faux’ doesn’t rhyme with ‘fox’, don’t they? Good night, I hope so.

-People who are actually paid to drive the agenda, usually by George Soros
– People who Want To Be A Part Of This Thing…and are not paid…
– People who stand to benefit in some other way.

Which category does “gadfly” commentor D-Vega over at Right Wing News, fall into? The frequency and urgency of his posts, makes me suspect #1 there. I have often wondered if he is actually on the payroll of some left-wing outfit whose business it is to infiltrate conservative websites and disrupt the conversation there. He has many counterparts over at moonbattery.com and others I read periodically.

Raise taxes, bring in more money, layoffs avoided.

Too bad for them that it doesn’t actually work that way. It’s more like: Raise taxes, bring in the same or less money, layoffs happen anyway.

All parasites can feed on their respective hosts only so much…

Sometimes the host dies, and then they’re both screwed. Oops.
- cylarz | 04/30/2011 @ 00:59
So I think these fourth-slice people want to feel good about themselves, by making it much less likely anybody will ever do anything else better. If we’re all required to help each other by means of taxes…we become a society where nobody, or hardly anybody, goes out of their way willingly to help each other. Nobody owes anybody any acknowledgement or debt of gratitude for anything. We all just owe our taxes and that’s it.

I’m glad you got to #4 … and I think you pretty much nailed it, too.
- philmon | 04/30/2011 @ 13:32

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“You Changed Clothes!”Saturday, April 30th, 2011

“You Changed Clothes!”
Saturday, April 30th, 2011