This was a fun exercise I had with two coworkers and they finally saw the light. Maybe you can play this game, too.
Background - they full supported Obama and think republicans just want to keep thier rich buddies from having to help us out of this crisis. Waxing philosophically never works with these folks.
Here's how the conversation went:
Them: All pissed off saying the rich should pay more and they're just so greedy.
Me: Ok, let's say we raise their taxes. How much?
Them: Not all of it, just like 10%
Me: Ok, where do they get that money.
Them: huh? they're rich. They have lots of money.
Me: Well, yeah, but where do they have it? In their mattresses?
Them: No, either in the banks or in their investments.
Me: So, if government takes 10% of that they'll have to take it out of the banks or their investments?
Them: Yeah. So what, they don't need it. It's not like they'll be hurting.
Me: But what about the companies that rely on those investments? That's a 10% reduction in the money they'll be getting.
Them: (puzzled, but the light starting to come on)
Me: What happens when companies have less money to borrow from the banks or less money from people investing in them? Won't they have to cut jobs?
Them: Not necessarily, they could just eat it.
Me: When does that ever happen? If they lose profits, other people will stop investing in them and your 401k will take another huge hit.
Them: Maybe they'll just operate more efficiently and quit wasting money.
Me: Well, I'd say most companies are running about as lean as they can right now. If they could just save money, they'd already be doing it. They can either raise prices or fire people.
Them: Hmmm... There's got to be a way to make the rich pay more without hurting everyone else?
Me: Really?
Them: Yeah, why else would they be talking about raising taxes?
Me: Good question - maybe because government wants someone to blame and the rich are an easy target? I mean, the economy's in the $#@!ter and taxing it more is not going to help. The last thing you should want to do now is take anymore money out of the economy and funnel it through Washington!
Them: You make a good point.
I wish I had a recording of that conversation! They still hate the rich, but now they see the foolishness of raising taxes on them. I usually don't get very much time to make arguments with them so asking them questions seemed to work pretty well. They just have never asked the right questions themselves, I just guided them through.
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