HOLD BUSH AND CHENEY ACCOUNTABLE

THE RICH AREN'T SO DIFFERENT AFTER ALL

In right wing land we're told that the rich are special. They're the "achievers," the risk takers, the innovators, the virtuous, and deserving of so much more than the rest of us. I've never bought that idea. I worked for a company for seven years where the owner didn't work, but collected handsome checks from the blood,sweat, and tears of her employees. A good deal of wealth in this country is inherited. A lot of it comes from financial manipulation such as we've seen with AIG. This commentary by Michael Hiltzik is at www.latimes.com:

That the point is even open for discussion suggests that a sea change is taking place on the American political scene. For decades, the wealthy have been held up as people to be admired, victors in the Darwinian economic struggle by virtue of their personal ingenuity and hard work.

Americans consistently supported fiscal policies that undermined middle- and working-class interests partially because they saw themselves as rich-people-in-waiting: Given time, toil and the magic of compound interest, anyone could retire a millionaire.

That mind-set has all but been eradicated by the damage sustained by the average worker's nest egg, combined with the spectacle of bankers and financial engineers maintaining their lifestyles with multimillion-dollar bonuses while the submerged 99% struggle for oxygen.

(The price of admission to the top 1% income-earning club last year was roughly $400,000.) That may account for the near-total absence of public outcry over President Obama's proposal to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans -- except of course from the wealthiest Americans.