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Article & thread. @svdate details cost of the President’s golf vacations to the taxpayers. It’s a lot, way more than the annual budgets of some entire federal agencies. But it’s most instructive as an example of a belief central to 21st century American culture.
The belief is that rich people should be able to do whatever they want. Not all Americans believe this, of course. Not even all Republicans do (OK, that one represents a leap of faith on my part). But for most Americans, phrases like “equal justice before the law” mean...
...people like them shouldn’t be treated any better than they are. The rich are not like them, so if they want special treatment that is OK. Trump ripping off the taxpayers & using the Presidency to promote his golf club is OK. Cheating on his taxes is OK.
Cheating on his wife (all right, wives) is OK. Forcing himself on women? OK. Seeking Russian help to become President? Well, Trump is rich, so why shouldn’t he? It goes without saying that obstructing justice on multiple occasions would send most people to prison.
But Trump is rich, and therefore not most people. Not even Nancy Pelosi thinks he should be impeached, for obstruction or anything else.
Now, this widespread belief partly stems from factors specific to campaign politics. Campaigns cost a lot of money, it takes much less time to raise money from a few rich people than from thousands of ordinary people — therefore, politicians treat the rich....
....with respectful deference (if they are Democrats) or fawning, self-abasing deference (if they are Republicans). But that doesn’t account for the great majority of Americans treating the wealthy as worthy of favors they shouldn’t have to pay for.
Increasing inequality in America has been driven mostly by sharply higher incomes and asset appreciation benefiting the wealthiest people in the country, while income for everyone else has grown more slowly. Logic tells us such a big economic change would bring with it...
...changes in cultural attitudes as well. One such change is a stronger popular feeling that the rich could only be rich if they deserved it: they must be better than the rest of us. I won’t claim to share or even fully understand this feeling, but to deny it exists is foolish
For many Americans, Donald Trump sponging off the taxpayers for luxury vacation travel he could afford to pay for himself is, well, OK. Because he’s rich, therefore better than they are, and what are you gonna do? It’s possible, of course, to look at the same facts....
....and reach a different conclusion: that Trump should have to pay for his extra perks, and his damned bratty adult children should have to pay for theirs, and incidentally the taxes they & their wealthy friends pay should be higher. A lot higher.
This conclusion would collide with the increasing societal deference to rich people, just because they are rich. It would make many Americans very uncomfortable. But that might be a very good, and ultimately a very healthy, thing to do. [end]
