The latest issue of Fortune offers a good response to those who support tax increases for families earning more than $250,000 a year.
In true modern-journalism style, the magazine downplays statistics and instead features photos of five families who would take a hit from that type of tax increase. None of those families ? including Charlotte?s Drs. Kymberly and John Selden ? would strike anyone as the selfish, evil rich.
In the article that goes along with the photos, Fortune dubs these families HENRYs (high earners, not rich yet):
Put simply, the HENRYs are the bulwark of the professional and entrepreneurial class that drives the economy. ? They are relentless strivers. Aspiring HENRYs played by the rules and did everything right: They won the best grades in high school, got accepted at good colleges and grad schools, and worked daunting schedules as medical interns or associates in law firms. They’re an upwardly mobile group: Most HENRYs used their talent and grit to advance from the middle class, and those who got a hand from affluent parents are determined to do even better for their kids. “These high earners may come from privileged, upper-middle-class backgrounds or be the children of immigrants,” says Phillip Cook, a financial advisor in Torrance, Calif. “What they have in common is that they worked incredibly hard to build their careers and work incredibly hard to move ahead.” Now this group of superachievers is being targeted as a cash machine.
The article goes on to remind us that Sen. Barack Obama is the one doing the targeting. For more recent Locker Room critiques of Obama?s tax proposals, click here, here, or here.
