Comments

That is ultra weird!!! Wonder who Dan Rather, Mr. $945K, supported???

Posted by Freeman at November 24, 2004 12:00 PM

Maybe they've got enough money already and are just interested in making sure the dollar retains some lingering value.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Posted by Cathy at November 24, 2004 1:45 PM

So, not surprisingly, it is the middle class who made the final call. History has shown
that across time the ruling elite gradually accumulates a disproportionate share of resources
until the masses become miserable enough to be shocked into action. Since the rest of the
world is still willing to finance deficit spending by the government and buying binges of
unneccessary Chinese goods at Wal-Mart, we can continue to sidestep the hard questions.
It will be interesting to see what happens when world financial markets cut off the opiate
of unlimited debt about the same time the boomers retire, and all of us are forced
to deal with our real value(s) in a different context.

Posted by Tom C. at November 24, 2004 2:34 PM

Like Freeman wrote, ultra weird. Maybe 2/3 of the $10MM+ income people feel insulated from the effects of runaway government spending on pork, and tax hikes to pay for the pork, so they can indulge their fantasies and vote for the second most powerful senator from Massachusetts who's never quite left Saigon.

Or maybe these 2/3 live in the blue states. I notice that the more famous pockets of wealth (Beverly Hills, Greenwich, Westchester County, Chicago's gold coast, northeast NJ, Marin County) are mostly in states that went for Kerry. Whereas the red states are made up of us turkeys who actually make the country great, and are busy improving our lives and others' instead of living off trust funds.

Posted by Ron at November 24, 2004 3:32 PM

two words: tax break

below 1M, u dont feel it. above 10M u dont really care abt it.

Posted by James Seng at November 24, 2004 11:51 PM

Not weird at all! The perception of the guy-in-the-street may still be that Democrats are the party of the little guy whereas Republicans are the party of fat cats. But isn't it generally known by all who pay attention to such things that the really big money donors tend to give their financial support to Democrats whereas Republicans receive most of their money in small donations? Consider who the $1 to $10 million folks are. According to Stanley and Danko--who did the anthropological studies of the affluent in America ("The Millionaire Next Door", etc.)--these are the successful small business owners. A husband and wife who worked diligently for 25 years to build a construction company, starting with little more than a wheelbarrel and a rusty pickup truck. Or the local couple who worked for 30 years to build a livestock auction company, and then added farms, a trucking company and an airport shuttle service to the mix; and still work six days a week. (Interesting factoid: Stanley and Danko claim that the profession with the highest percentage of millionaires is auctioneering.) In order to make it, they've had to negotiate the full gauntlet of taxation, regulation and labor laws. Remember what the Gipper used to say about the entrepreneurs: To them, the scariest words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you". They're quite understandable inclined to support what they perceive to be the advocates of smaller, more stream-lined government. The mega-wealthy, however, are often a very different sort. Many of them are the beneficiaries of inherited wealth. And all of them get to play by a very different set of rules. Hence Mrs. Kerry with a net worth of several billion paying a lower aggregate tax rate than the typical middle-class working family.

Posted by Doug Smith at November 25, 2004 5:11 PM