You kind of get the sneaky suspicion that this dilettante amateur philosopher billionaire dude, Tom Perkins is auditioning a routine for some kind of stand up Konservative Komedy Klub. I guess the Wall Street Journal under the guidance of Rupert Murdoch qualifies as a Konservative Komedy Klub these days. Just a few weeks ago he tried to make a pathetic comparison of the ultra rich 1% to the ethnic cleansing and horrors that the Jews of Europe faced under the Third Reich. That got a few laughs, so now he's doubling down and added a few new gags to his routine. On stage in San Francisco's Kommonwealth Komedy Klub earlier this week he unveiled his latest schtick, that Americans shouldn’t be able to vote unless they pay taxes and that the wealthy should have more votes.
“The Tom Perkins system is: You don’t get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes,” Perkins said. “But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How’s that?” Watch the full interview above.
The audience thought that this was a billion dollar idea and it triggered a hearty laff-a-thon, though the billionaire did not indicate that he was joking. Afterwards, he suggested that he was being purposely controversial, “I intended to be outrageous, and it was. What a joker. If this is his idea of humor, then perhaps he should explain the joke, because, the nation’s growing gap between the rich and poor has become a full-blown crisis, with the top 1 percent of families experienced a 278 percent increase in their real after-tax income from 1979 to 2007, while families in the middle 60 percent saw an increase of less than 40 percent. A large body of research suggests that high inequality leads to lower levels of representative democracy and a higher probability of revolution, as poorer citizens become convinced that the government is only serving and representing the interests of the rich.
Wealthy people’s disproportionate impact on democracy also has the effect of perpetuating income inequality. During the 2012 elections, “the top 0.01 percent of campaign donors — one percent of the one percent — contributed more than 40 percent of all the money spent in the 2012 elections,” compared to 15 percent in 1980. Harvard economics professor Edward L. Glaeser argues that as the rich become richer and secure more political influence, they support policies that make them wealthier at the expense of everyone else. “If the rich can influence political outcomes through lobbying activities or membership in special interest groups, then more inequality could lead to less redistribution rather than more,” he explained in a 2006 paper. But that's boring, right? We just want to be entertained. So if that was this jerks biggest joke, then perhaps we should bring back the the ultimate peoples joke, the ultimate pie in the face of the French Revolution...that always got the biggest laugh:
“The Tom Perkins system is: You don’t get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes,” Perkins said. “But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How’s that?” Watch the full interview above.
The audience thought that this was a billion dollar idea and it triggered a hearty laff-a-thon, though the billionaire did not indicate that he was joking. Afterwards, he suggested that he was being purposely controversial, “I intended to be outrageous, and it was. What a joker. If this is his idea of humor, then perhaps he should explain the joke, because, the nation’s growing gap between the rich and poor has become a full-blown crisis, with the top 1 percent of families experienced a 278 percent increase in their real after-tax income from 1979 to 2007, while families in the middle 60 percent saw an increase of less than 40 percent. A large body of research suggests that high inequality leads to lower levels of representative democracy and a higher probability of revolution, as poorer citizens become convinced that the government is only serving and representing the interests of the rich.
Wealthy people’s disproportionate impact on democracy also has the effect of perpetuating income inequality. During the 2012 elections, “the top 0.01 percent of campaign donors — one percent of the one percent — contributed more than 40 percent of all the money spent in the 2012 elections,” compared to 15 percent in 1980. Harvard economics professor Edward L. Glaeser argues that as the rich become richer and secure more political influence, they support policies that make them wealthier at the expense of everyone else. “If the rich can influence political outcomes through lobbying activities or membership in special interest groups, then more inequality could lead to less redistribution rather than more,” he explained in a 2006 paper. But that's boring, right? We just want to be entertained. So if that was this jerks biggest joke, then perhaps we should bring back the the ultimate peoples joke, the ultimate pie in the face of the French Revolution...that always got the biggest laugh:
"Hah, Hahhh" to quote the great American Philosopher, Nelson Muntz. Now let's bring on Gene, Gene, The Dancin' Machine while we clean up the stage for our next act!
4 comments:
More magic...when you watch the guillotine and gene the dancin machine...together on the screen, the blade your brain automatically synchronizes the action with
with the beat, which is what I imagined would happen.
And then there was the unknown comic with the paper bag over his head.
the Ol'Buzzard
There was a time when I just wanted to tar and feather arrogant assholes such as this one. Now, motormouth BILLIONAIRES, and their quick step minions, trigger a much darker scenario in my head. Honing stones play a large role in that partition of my mind.
Hello Microdot,
Got a new computer and trying to get my old links back into working order.
I have said often...Viva la Madam Guillotine.
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