Whatever happened to the Age of Aquarius?
President Obama was supposed to usher in a new era of hope and change. Sadly, the president who going to bring us together has torn us further apart than at any time in our history. It is President Obama’s class warfare rhetoric that made this scene possible:
Walking down New York's 55th Street near Park Avenue last Friday evening, our group of seven men in suits and ties was approached by a panhandler asking for money.
"Here are a bunch of Wall Street guys," he said, straight out. "Give me some money."
Although we were not all "Wall Street guys," all except one kept walking, ignoring the panhandler as we typically do, as instructed by "experts." Yet over the past 30 years of living in the city, I often have disregarded this advice, and so once more I gave instinctively. I pulled out a dollar, handed it to the man, smiled, and resumed walking.
But next came a revelation.
"A dollar?" the man shouted. "You Wall Street fat cats! This is what the problem is with this country. Take your damn dollar." With that, he threw it on the sidewalk.
Apparently, street charity now has a minimum.
A panhandler throwing a dollar down in the street is a fitting image for the Obama era. I am not saying that the president would approve of this, but I am saying he is responsible, perhaps inadvertently, because he has made class hatred his rallying cry.
Sure, it's ugly and repellent. But it is also incredibly counterproductive. More than anything else, right now we need business leaders to create jobs. That is the only way we are going to get out of this Slough of Despond.
If we tax them into oblivion, not because their money will help reduce our debts (it won't–only reductions in spending will do that) but because of class hatred, then we are cutting off our noses to spite our faces.