Who is rich?

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

The real class warfare in this country has nothing to do with so called "one percenters" or "fat cats."

Gas guzzlers are not the source of the energy problem. In reality, consciously or unconsciously, we squander resources on sports.

I can solve the budget deficit problem as well as President Obama, the imported energy problem and any little old thing that might be polluting our air from autos with one simple little law: Tax all sports and entertainment expenditures at 200 percent, starting with high school sports.

And while one is at it, put a 200-percent tax on cable and dish television services, too. For those of you who struggle with math, you can tax consumption (but not income) activities at a rate greater than 100 percent.

For you see, the real rich with extra income in this country are those who can afford to go to a sports event or an entertainment venue.

You must admit that attending a sports event is a discretionary expense (that is, not food, shelter or clothing). Hence, anyone who has the money to indulge in these appears as a "fat cat" to anyone who can't.

If one looks at the government statistics of those impoverished, barely making it and so forth, it is pretty easy to conclude at least one-third of Americans can't afford to go to even a high school basketball game. To them, if you can, you are a "fat cat."

I know and I remember – when I was in high school, $3 or $4 for a high school basketball game night out was simply out of reach.

At first, I started to share here a detailed calculation on what this country spends on sports each year, then thought better of it. Not sharing it will save the energy and effort of those of you wanting to argue with it – you can just go for the jugular.

Let's just say, all in, spectator sports from high school through the pros plus subscriptions to cable TV plus money spent on movies and so forth is a spend of about $100 billion per year.

I have only included spectator sports (but not concerts) and have ignored participatory sports such as golf, tennis, hunting, boating and gaming.

So let's look at President Obama's tax on the rich. According to the Wall Street Journal, Feb. 4, 2012, "...Mr. Obama proposed generating $1.7 trillion in new revenue over 10 years largely by ending Bush-era tax cuts for families who earn more than $250,000, restoring the estate tax to its 2009 level and limiting subsidies for oil and gas companies.

"He also for the first time proposed raising the tax rate on dividends, from 15 percent to as much as 39.6 percent, for households making more than $250,000 a year. The White House said the measure would generate $206 billion in revenue over 10 years..."

Let's see, $1.7 trillion plus $206 billion over 10 years divided by 10 equals $190 billion per year.

So, a 200-percent tax on spectator sports will yield $200 billion per year. If you attend spectator sports, this shouldn't be a problem for you. After all, at a ballpark, you already pay $6 for a hotdog and $8 for a beer without flinching. These items would cost you less than $3 total, prepared at home. You obviously are rolling in the money and spend with abandon, dear sports spectator.

Gasoline consumption for attending sporting events is even more interesting. Again, I won't bother sharing the calculations but attendance at NFL games alone consumes at least 16 million gallons of gasoline per season.

Nearly everyone is a "fat cat" when compared to someone else.

And if we could identify the poorest person in America, I can take you to places in the world, not so far away, where people are even poorer and would look upon the poorest in America as swimming in riches.

I can get on an airplane and in less than three hours be in New York City or Guatemala City. In Guatemala City I can find you the destitute poor of which I speak, almost on the airport grounds.

So how does it feel when someone points out you are "rich?"

President Obama knows we are all "fat cats." The double entendre of his 1 percent claim is that he clearly thinks America as a whole is way too rich. On a whole-world basis, all Americans are in the top 1 percent.

The surprise of his second term, if re-elected, is he will be telling us all we are too rich and need to share more with the rest of the world, even if they kill our ambassadors.

The "tax the rich" class warfare ginned up by the current administration is just a ruse to keep one from thinking about its failed track record.

To someone, somewhere, you are rich – no matter how poor you may feel.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga., following decades of wandering the world, and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.