Of Course! He's LYING

Every morning, I make my rounds through several news websites to check on some of the big stories as well as some of the smaller ones. Today, I had a convergence of two of these websites, NPR and The New York Times. NPR featured a small article on Warren Buffett's Op-Ed to the New York Times about how he feels that the "super-wealthy" really should be taxed at much higher rates. He also counters the much touted argument that taxes kill jobs when he states

People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

This isn't a revolutionary argument- people on twitter have said the same thing in about 140 characters since this whole debate started. But when Warren Buffett says it, people have a very different reaction. Rather than rebutting the point with "you don't know anything about economics" we have the following gems from the comment section of NPR

Yet... somehow Mr. Buffett sounds so magnanimous. It's all talk. He SAYS he want's to pay more... there's nothing STOPPING him from paying more. Put your $ where your mouth is! Write the check!

There's clearly a missing step in this person's reading of Mr. Buffett's original editorial, assuming he or she even bothered to go and read the original editorial at all. Mr. Buffett is not concerned with his taxes alone, but is after the more systemic problem in the American tax code. Of course, a wealthy man saying that taxes on the rich should be raised has to a) have an ulterior motive and b) is wrong that he doesn't pay enough. If Buffett had come out and said that he pays enough (or too much) we can be certain that people on the right would be touting his words as proof positive of their views being correct. But because he came out in the exact opposite, his credibility must be utterly undermined and you get comments like:

Fair Tax: EVERYBODY including John the tax cheat Kerry, pays 20% Consumption and everything. It makes too much sense for manipulative-minded liberals who have a socialist agenda for America.

What's of further interest is that, of course, no one on the comment section actually came out with figures and arguments to the contrary of what Mr. Buffett has argued for. Instead we have wonderful diatribes and efforts to simply wrest any degree of authority from Buffett (including some really well placed red herrings). Now, I'm not trying to really come down on the issue at hand so much as I am trying to point out how hopelessly disappointing the comments of the readers are. I think Buffett makes a great argument and I am entitled to agree or disagree with him on whatever basis I see fit so long as it is on topic and critically thought out. Not so with our fine Internet denizens. Instead, soundbites and personal attacks govern the land.

Mr. Buffett's argument is not outlandish, and it underscores some the largest issues we have in the relationship between government and citizens. For some reason, there's a knee jerk reaction to protect the super wealthy from taxes because, and I have heard this many times, taxes lead to a removal of our freedoms. This is F.A. Hayek's argument stripped of what little support it had to begin with. And the end result is a group of posters who throw themselves full screed ahead.

I can't generalize as to why this is the case. I just don't know who these people are or what they have done to put themselves into such a horrible position when it comes to the formation of arguments and opinions. What I do know is that anytime I see these comments posted, I lose a little faith. I have to get in the habit of staying away from the comment sections of most websites. It's not that people are inherently stupid- its just that some of the stupidest ones are the loudest.