August 22, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty
I used to think the world’s biggest hypocrites were the bureaucrats at international bureaucracies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Monetary Fund.
They jet around the world at our expense (in business class, of course) urging governments to increase tax burdens, yet their salaries are tax free.
I’m not joking. Bureaucrats who pay no tax (on very generous salaries) have a mission of encouraging higher taxes on the rest of us.
As far as I’m concerned, this hypocrisy is even worse than the politicians who oppose school choice while sending their own kids to private school. And worse than the elitists who lecture us about global warming while living in 10,000-square foot homes and flying in private jets.
But we may have an example of hypocrisy that beats all alternatives. At the Democratic Convention this week, Michelle Obama demonstrated a remarkable absence of self-awareness, as captured by this tweet.
Ms. Obama’s intention was to promote class warfare by implying that it is unseemly to be successful.
Does she not know she’s part of the top 1 percent? Maybe the top 0.1 percent?
Here are some details from Business Insider, including the fact that the three homes mentioned in the tweet have a combined value of more than $22 million.
…the Obamas’ life after the White House has been full and highly lucrative. …These endeavors — along with the six-figure pension all former presidents receive — have significantly contributed to the Obamas’ net worth, which is at least $70 million, according to International Business Times. The New York Post pegged their fortune much higher, at $135 million. …
All things considered, the Obamas could stand to earn as much as $242.5 million in their post-presidency life, American University estimated in 2017. …they purchased an 8,200-square-foot mansion in Washington, DC, for $8.1 million… In addition to their residence in Washington, DC, the Obamas still own their home in Chicago… It’s valued at about $2.5 million. …In 2019, the Obamas reportedly purchased a house in Martha’s Vineyard for $11.75 million.
Have the Obama’s taken “more than they needed”?
For what it’s worth, Ms. Obama’s class warfare would not have been grotesquely hypocritical if she had simply said something like “those of us with a lot should be willing to pay a lot” or “people like me should be pay more to help those with less.”
That’s the message of lefty groups like the so-called Patriotic Millionaires. They don’t hide their wealth. They just have a masochistic desire for higher taxes.
That’s bad tax policy, but it’s not hypocritical. Ms. Obama should learn from them.
P.S. Even better, Ms. Obama should learn about good tax policy so she can then support reforms that would enable other people to get rich like her.
P.P.S. There’s another reason that I don’t like what Ms Obama said. She should have said that her mother was suspicious of people who “earned more than they needed” rather than “took more than they needed.”
In a free-market system, you only get money by providing value to someone else. Transactions are voluntary and based on mutual benefit.
To be fair, her statement would have been accurate if she was referring to government bureaucrats, subsidy recipients, and others who obtain unearned wealth because of government coercion. Given the big-government views of her husband, which she seems to share, I’m completely confident she was referring to people who earn money honestly.
P.P.P.S. The Patriotic Millionaires are hypocrites, but in a different way than Ms. Obama.
P.P.P.P.S. There’s a test that supposedly determines whether libertarians are hypocrites.
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