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Evangelical

The Merit Myth

April 05, 2011 by David Sessions

Continued from Page 1

The other side of the myth that most rich people came by their wealth through honest hard work is that poverty is primarily the result of laziness or "addiction" to government welfare—the implication being that they mooch off the hardworking wealthy. To be sure, some out of hundreds of government programs have produced unintended social consequences and unhealthy dependency. But these failures hardly merit conservative hyperbole about the "myth of the working poor," or the proliferation of dismissive papers claiming that just because most low-income Americans have cars and microwaves, they're not really that poor. (They could always, you know, be Africa-poor.)

Whether intentionally or not, the conservative fantasy that the United States is a meritocracy where social mobility is enabled and championed inevitably ends up letting the rich off the hook. If someone is making half a million dollars per year, they almost certainly had an unearned economic advantage that was not equally available to the waitress in Nashville who makes $20,000. There is no "level playing field."

Thus it is not "inequitable," as Hagopian wants us to believe, that the six-figure earner pays a higher percentage of his dollar in taxes. He is not being "punished" for working hard; he is being taxed in proportion with his advantage.

And he still pays some of the lowest taxes in the developed world. It is hard to see how statistical analyses, rationalizations, and fables that portray this as an injustice, particularly those drafted by wealthy venture capitalists, have any other motivation than to justify the extraneous wealth the upper tax brackets enjoy while millions go without employment and turn to crippling debt simply to survive.

There are myriad legitimate debates to be had about what level of taxation is sustainable, how much each bracket should be taxed, and which are effective ways for the government to distribute revenue. Government's critics can attack the failures of its delivery methods all they like. But whether they hold it as a pious myth or a cynical lie, they should spare us the notion that the progressive income tax represents structural robbery of the rich.

Page: 2 of 2

4/5/2011 4:00:00 AM

Evangelical

Sessions on American Culture

Affirmative action

Capitalism

Debt

Economics

Inequity

Meritocracy

Poverty

Taxes

Wealth

Christianity

Evangelicalism

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About David Sessions

David Sessions is the founding editor of Patrol. His writing has appeared in Slate, New York, Politics Daily, and others. Follow him on Twitter.

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