What would Adam Smith say about Obama?

Tuesday October 21, 2008 | | Permalink | Digg It

The right-wing has ripped into this statement by Barack Obama, accusing him of being a socialist:

“I do believe that for folks like me who’ve worked hard but frankly also been lucky, I don’t mind paying just a little bit more than the waitress who I just met over there … She can barely make the rent … And I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

This principal, however, can be directly traced to Adam Smith’s opus, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (1776). In Smith’s seminal treatise on capitalism, he postulated four “maxims” of taxation: proportionality, transparency, convenience, and efficiency. He supported low taxes and was opposed to the taxation of capital gains. Sounds like what most everybody in this country wants, right? Some economists credit Smith as one of the first to advocate a progressive tax. Smith wrote:

“It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.“

What! Are you kidding me? The go-to guy for capitalism in the U.S. believes in progressive taxation and that the rich should contribute to society in greater proportion than the poor? I wonder why? Smith writes:

“The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor … The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess”

Let’s deconstruct this: “The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor“. Basically, the necessities of life (food, clothing, and shelter) are the areas where the poor spend all of their money.

Let’s continue: “The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess.“ The luxuries and vanities of life are where the rich spend the most of their money, and that these luxuries and vanities lead to even more wealth.

Consider the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. How is it that the right-wing does not see this as the pinnacle of socialism — our tax dollars are being redistributed to the richest people in the U.S. Why? Because they were greedy and fucked up our economy. We lose they win, no matter what they do.

Obama does not have a greater goal in his plan other than allowing 95% of the people in the U.S. to benefit from tax breaks while those whom have reaped massive windfalls under Bush will pay an additional 3% on their taxes. Boo hoo.

And, I recommend that Joe the Plumber vote for Obama — he will get a larger tax refund.

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