You may recall Thomas Perkins, the multi-millionaire who recently said that the attacks on the one-percenters is similar to the rhetoric that the Nazis used to inflame people against Jews and thus may be the precursor to a something similar happening here. He must be feeling pleased with the reception those remarks got because he is back in the news, with new and even more profound insights.
He now says that in elections rich people should get 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?”
Actually, Robert McChesney has long been saying that this is what we already effectively have. What McChesney says is disguised, Perkins wants to make transparent and who can argue against that?
In fact, I think Perkins should seek the Republican nomination for president and run on a platform with the catchy slogan of “One dollar, one vote”. We have already seen from the 2012 election that anyone with money and a catchy but meaningless slogan can gain a substantial following in that party and even be a leading contender however vacuous their ideas are. I give as an example Herman Cain and his ‘9-9-9’ tax plan.
If Perkins runs, it will be interesting to see how the other candidates and the party leadership react since they covertly agree with his point of view.
HUGE numbers of people will vote for him. The madness of the obscenely rich is understandable. Money is the most powerful hallucinogen ever invented.
The real mystery of human nature is masochism. What makes people vote for a politician who they know will fuck them over?
kevin,
As opposed to what? Isn’t that what politicians do?
The knowledge that they’d do the same thing if they could get away with it? Hey, this is America. Anyone can get obscenely rich at any time for any reason. It’s best to be prepared.
Well, he’s not exactly being opaque about saying that’s how things are now. It’s right there in the quote 😉
Since the rich pay less in taxes than the rest of us, percentagewise, wouldn’t this actually work out quite well?
I guess some corps would get negative votes:
“ExxonMobil: $19 billion profit in ’09; paid $0.00 in federal income tax AND received a $156 million IRS rebate.”
http://morallowground.com/2011/03/30/the-moral-high-ground-senator-bernie-sanders-names-shames-americas-top-10-corporate-tax-dodgers/
Perhaps it will give corporations an incentive to pay taxes in the first place. Elections will essentially go to the highest bidder.