Click the link below for Jon Stewart’s… analysis, shall we say? of Mitt Romney’s release of tax information… finally…

Let’s illustrate some points with a little story, shall we?

Let’s say Jimmy just graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree and along the way he has incurred a small mountain of student debt from this prestigious university that ensured him that everyone wants to hire their graduates. Well the economy isn’t doing so well and he can’t get that teaching job he was really hoping for because the school districts have had to cut back on expenditures even though classrooms are overflowing and the books are falling apart. Anyway, Jimbo here can’t get a teaching job and yet he has to make ends meet and pay for rent, utilities, car insurance, health insurance and now student loans. After much searching our boy Jimmy find’s himself at an All-American job at FranchiseCo. where the almighty job creators have bestowed upon him and and his community the blessings of minimum wage and a brand name that is recognized from sea to shining sea. Jimmy works his butt off, but after a few months he notices other workers slacking and never being reprimanded while he’s the one picking up the slack. His schedule is rarely consistent and after six months he is still being paid $7.25 though any fool can see he’s better than that. Jimbo doesn’t complain though, he does as he’s told. After a year of working there, FranchiseCo. reports that it is now the number one vendor mediocre meals anywhere on Earth. The company has seen it’s profits bloom by 300% in the last year, all due to the hard work of people like our boy Jimmy. After some time goes by, a realization strikes Jim. “Well FranchiseCo. never could have made and sold all of those Franchise Burgers without me and people like me down here on the front-lines! And I read about the 300% profit gains and the company’s oversea expansions, but for all that extra profit I saw no increase in pay!” he said to himself. As he mopped Franchise Sauce from the floor that night at closing, Jimmy thought about the shareholders and franchise owners that profited exponentially from his labor while he continued to be paid the absolute minimum. He went home that night and went straight to bed, too upset to eat his Ramen dinner. As he laid in bed he thought about his life and how he had tried to do everything right- even after he couldn’t get that teaching job he persevered and never even took a sick day while working at FranchiseCo. The next morning he realized it had been a calendar year since he began his job. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen to sit down and calculate how much money he had made. For 52 weeks he had worked 40 hours at $7.25 per hour. Before taxes his earnings totaled $15,600. He looked at his pile of bills next to him and his gaze hardened. He went to his bedroom to get dressed. He emerged wearing a red shirt, camouflage pants, a black vest and a black beret. Donning a pair of sunglasses he set out walking to FranchiseCo., where he put in his two weeks notice and informed them that his uncle Sam had passed away in the night and he would be out of town for the funeral and the estate arrangements. He proceeded to walk to FranchiseMart where he purchased a new rifle. No one saw or heard from Jimmy for a few months. No one could get a hold of him. Then one day there was breaking news on every major station that a small citizen’s militia of former factory workers and other economically disenfranchised people had stormed the state capitol building. After the smoke had cleared there were some fifty people dead or missing and about as many in critical condition being rushed to the hospitals. Among the dead that day was Jimmy. He had grown up with a loving family, faith in God and the American Dream. He wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t a religious fundamentalist. He had been a Boy Scout and class valedictorian in his small town. None of the pundits and news anchors could imagine why a young man such as this would have done such a terrible thing.

The moral of the story is that poverty breeds radicalism and that capitalism is not inherently evil, but when it isn’t practiced fairly and with proper respect for the workers that make it possible. Labor creates ALL wealth. When you take unfair advantage of the proletariat you WILL awaken a sleeping giant and you may not like the outcome. Case in point: Every time a monarchy falls or loses control of a population, that population EITHER becomes a democracy with a free market system or it becomes a socialist or communist state that is then co-opted by a totalitarian regime. Either way, the monarchs usually lose their heads.

Yes, the example is facetious, but there are many people in Jimmy’s shoes. They’re stuck through little or no fault of their own and $15,600 a year won’t pay for student loans- which will be the next financial bubble to burst, mark my words- I do not call for a redistribution of wealth. I call for equality of opportunity to allow for a meritocracy. I also call on you to ask yourself what is meant by “…promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity…”