Say goodbye to the economic recovery. (If it existed at all)

The House and Senate currently get over 170,000 yearly salaries. That's the baseline; it's possible for the salary to go higher than that for individuals. I don't know if that's enough to call someone 'rich,' but it's definitely enough to put them above blue collar Joe.

Yes, but the party base isn't rich. You don't get elected with the votes of 2% of America.

A lot of people believe that they will be rich one day, and that when they do, they want to have as much money and power as possible. Others, genuinely prefer having super-powerful rich people running things, and think that anything else is dangerous.

I think part of that is also that people underestimate how much $200,000 actually is.

I'm curious as to whether or not letting the tax cuts expire would help peoples mindsets. I'm willing to bet the headlines for any tax increase is less likely to be

Taxes raised for .2% of population, you probably won't notice any differences.

vs

TAXES RAISED! WILL THIS DESTROY YOUR LONG TERM FINANCIAL PLANS? _{Find out at eleven.}

Course, that's mostly just the psychological component.

The flip side is that, when many people experience misfortune, their reaction is to wish the same misfortune upon others. Didn't get any comp when you lost your job? Then why should these lazy people get any?