Go forth sinners and be taxed!

June 29, 2009, 9:07 PM

I was just reading a news story on the internet about the price of cigarettes going up, and underneath the column as usual, there were comments supported for that article. As I sat here and read many of their comments, I became very motivated to write about it. I really don’t think people understand very much about what is at stake in our society right now. I don’t think very many people understand the real zeitgeist that exists in our culture in the 21st century. For example: many people were talking about wanting cigarettes to go up so that people wouldn’t be able to afford to smoke so his taxes would go down. One man said he had quit because he couldn’t afford them, but he still didn’t think it was right. Another felt kind of bad for the smokers because they shouldn’t have to fund everything when alcohol causes more in terms of accidents and tragedies than does smoking. Others railed against the “fatties and smokers” who run up health costs for taxpayers who don’t smoke and aren’t fat. They feel pretty self-righteous about it too!

We all know it is an unhealthy habit. Even people who existed and smoked prior to the onslaught from the surgeon general on our peace of mind and the tax man on our wallets, knew it was a dirty habit. It is empirical and observable. It stains our teeth and our fingers and clothing. It has made involuntary hacking assaults on our lungs. But John Wayne and Lucille Ball made it seem like the thing to do if you wanted to be a sophisticated lady or a man’s man. Then after Hollywood hooked us, they help lead the assault passing judgment on us with the helpful media that help us follow their every move. Tax the sinners who smoke and drink and can’t pass up a Big Mac with super-sized fries.

The thing that bothers me is that we, the common folks of America are being exploited and manipulated. As long as they can distract us and deceive us with our own differences, then the government and all the people who are in power over our lives can continue to live and work the way they do. They don’t only want to maintain their status quo, they want to exceed it. More power, more money, more guarantees of the good life, the sweet life; the lives all envy and aspire to have. They just don’t want us to scrutinize those lives very diligently. Have you ever wondered why the power brokers, Wall Street, unions, charities, businesses, service organizations, media and Hollywood all seem to intersect? How many times all these careers kind of lead in and out of public life and personal lives? Like people attract like people. Like incomes hang out together. What on earth does this have to do with a cigarette tax increase? Well, I will tell you.
As we go through our lives, we get ourselves focused on anything but what the government is really doing in our lives. Hence the tax. But that is not the real focus of what I believe about our government. It is in their best interests to keep us divided and distracted. As long as they can keep us from minding their business, they can go on with the ability to enact their own pay increases, have a golden parachute health plan, support their campaign by taking bribes and favors from those lobbying for their vote for money for their own pet projects. One hand washes the other so often in our government. They get us all hyped up about how good they are going to treat us and work for our betterment, and that takes a bundle of money. I have told my kids for years, “take my money and you’ll have to listen to me.” Works the same way in the world. No one is going to give you a bunch of their money without expecting you to vote their way. That is just one of the facts of life. So, as for the lust for justice, money, and all things material, are the first tenet for anyone looking for public office. And believe me, I am giving them a pass on that “justice” thing!

So if you are a do-gooder and you head for the political life, you have to get enough money to get yourself elected. To do that, you have to convince your donors that it is in their interests to help you. You make promises that when you are elected, they will be better off than they are now. So you author or support a bill that you believe will benefit your constituents and are getting ready to throw it in the hopper, and Congressman Smith, Jones, or Barney comes up to you and says “I don’t think you’d better push for that legislation because a certain lobby is going to be damaged in that bill. You know they are providing the money for something else for which you promised support. So you think, “uh oh!” But you can’t do without the money for it, so you table that and look for another sponsor or another way to get it done. But every way you go, there is another wad of money for some program that will be affected, or you will have to do without their monetary support. You won’t want to do that so you will convince yourself that now is not the right time to do what you knew in your heart was the right thing. I know, I am cynical.

I am skeptical too. I don’t think any of these people know what it is like to have to worry about the next meal or if they will have enough gas to get to work the next week. They worry about if their afternoon flight back to DC will conflict with their golf game with the Dalai Lama planned with photo op. We have nothing in common with these people except basic humanity and gender. They keep trying to show us view of themselves doing homey-type things as if they have any idea how the other half lives. Please! I will give Oprah this: when she has a chef on the show, she admits she doesn’t hardly know how to boil water. She doesn’t cook and admits it. But she doesn’t worry about groceries. She has staff who shop for her food and anything she wants to eat and I am positive she doesn’t stint at the cost. I doubt she even knows or cares what her chef spends. And if she didn’t have what she wanted, she would be able to call one of her assistants and have it delivered to her. I don’t know if she does this, but the point is she could. I can hardly get my 28 year old son who lives with me and I support, to go get me milk at the store when my hands are mixing the meatloaf and my back is killing me from making his bed! They don’t know about real struggle, because even if they did really struggle once upon a time, they have been a long time rich, and people forget pretty easily. They can’t argue with me about this. I would forget it if I only could! I know they have forgotten. And many of them were born with the proverbial silver spoon anyway. We have Hollywood dynasties, business dynasties, financial dynasties, political and social dynasties. That’s who they hang with, that’s who they marry, and that’s who they really care about. Oh, and the money to grease their way into any circle they want.

So, how could these elitists possibly know how we feel, in any respect. What’s the price of cigarettes going up mean to them. They can afford much better stuff. And if they smoke, well, someone is going to find a place where they can smoke. And if they need a lung transplant, they are going to get one: at the best hospitals, with doctors falling all over themselves to write them the best prescriptions. They’ll even fill the prescriptions themselves and deliver them to their doors. When you’ve got lots of money, you’ve got lots of friends. And options, and possibilities. The American working stiff and the IRS will make sure of it.