commentaries

Awesome editorial. It should be required reading for all of the progressives, Marxists and socialists. Every able- bodied citizen should be contributing to society. Work is necessary for healthy self-esteem. Our welfare state has created an underclass of citizens unable to take care of themselves, and without the ability to teach neccesary survival skills to their children. Poverty has become big business in both the private and public sector. We should be ashamed.

What a bizarro thought...Capitalism is the "goose that lays the golden egg". Without wealth creators (the private industry), the government cannot exist. Government does not create wealth, it provides a service to the public, using money generated through fees and taxes. If government works the goose too hard, it will no longer lay golden eggs...and besides, I work for the federal government!

The CBO says taxes haven't been this low since 1950. We are NOT overtaxed. Especially the people on top of the income ladder.

David Brooks would be making a plausible argument if he weren't arguing from a false premise. Mr. Brooks thinks our economy is "finally beginning to take off?" He's out of his gourd. He also claims deficits and tax burdens are at historical highs, which must mean he doesn't have access to an internet search engine or any decent statistics.

Of course the Democrats, whom Mr. Brooks abets by calling them "Progressives" (they're not), aren't much better. Both major parties today seem to believe that the Wall Street finance industry is the hub around which our economy spins. Anybody who works for a living knows that the real economy involves making and doing things in the marketplace, and Finance exists solely as a useful adjunct to the economy.

In healthy times, Finance is about 5% of economic activity. Today it's about 40%. Brooks' arguments serve only to protect the metastasizing Finance sector, to the detriment of the real economy. Look at Cyprus if you want to see the tender mercies of Finance and what they have in mind for people who work and run businesses for a living. But Mr. Brooks doesn't know the difference, so he joins the Democrats in name-calling, rather than doing anything that might possibly help the economy. What a fatuous person.

Mr. David Brooks is brilliant! The President and the liberal left should listen to him and change their contemplation. Making the taxes even higher will do just what Mr. Brooks has said. The GDP will whither if the Democrats get their way. Cut the government spending and let the invisable hand rise the tide. For all of us.

David, this is a terrific article. Thanks for telling it like it is for all of us moderates (common sense silent majority) out here!

I've come to the conclusion that most of today's "progressives" are in fact misguided communists who would welcome and are working toward the financial collapse of the entire country so they can right all the perceived wrongs by bringing about a new world order: total government control of the masses. Or they are just terrible with budgets.

Brooks makes some good points but he is another one that's in love with Wall Street and the Financial Sector. Taxes are the lowest they have been in a long time. Any fool can figure out you create wealth by manufacturing and selling goods .

Everyone claiming low taxes...we just raised taxes on January 1st! Now it's time to cut spending, that's why we have the sequester...we can work together and make intelligent spending cuts or we can continue down the sequester path...it's really up to the liberals in Congress how we proceed.

In 1952 and 1953 the marginal tax rate was 91 and 92% respectively. Compare this to the 35% the richest paid just three years ago. David Brooks is defending the status quo that the super wealthy believe is their entitlement. Economic history clearly shows that when the rich unjustly suppress the poor in order to acquire more wealth and power then at the expense of the majority that is when a democratic government must step in to reset the unbalanced systems that feeds such corruption. David Brooks may certainly have a grasp of the English language, but he is skewed far to the right in his analysis of the glory of the free market system.