Pogo Would Recognize Us

My hometown newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, often publishes a column or editorial from elsewhere as a counter, parallel or completely unrelated view of the paper's editorial position, which the JS labels "Another View". Such was the case in its Nov. 30 edition.

The paper's editorial headline that day was "GOP claims on tax effects overstated and misleading". The subhead said, "We're not persuaded that a slight increase in the top marginal tax rates will ensnare many 'job creators'." http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/gop-claims-on-tax-effects-overstated-and-misleading-pj7rhcc-181450841.html.

The other view, "Obama's demeaning ways don't help the 'job creators', (http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/obamas-demeaning-ways-dont-help-the-job-creators-q57relj-181450851.html) was written by a man named Peter Rush, who was identified as the author of Class Tax, Mass Tax. Rush's book bio says he is chairman and CEO of Kellen Company, a global professional services firm and that he has worked as a journalist, teacher, public relations executive and small business owner.

The word that got me was "demeaning," which I considered pejorative and, frankly, whining. Here's the letter I sent to the Journal Sentinel, as yet and probably forever, unpublished:

We have met the job creators and they are us. That play on the "We have met the enemy and it is us" epiphany of Walt Kelly's wise comic character, Pogo, came to mind when I read Peter Rush's "Another View" on Nov. 30's editorial page. Mr. Rush and so many others who have bought into the notion that rich people are "job creators," thus mustn't be taxed too much, (i.e. equal to the rest of us), don't seem to realize that without us, the consumers of goods and services, the wealthy would not be. It is consumers' buying power that enriches corporate owners and CEOs, hedge funders, entertainers and sports stars and rewards them for their talents and good fortune. Rather than demeaning the people Rush, etal, place in such elevated strata, President Obama is recognizing the value and contribution of the "real" working Americans, whom Rush, etc., do demean and don't acknowledge as being the engine of true job-creation power; American workers who deserve to be dignified with adequate pay and benefits.