Am I Naive?

There's a new book out called Death By A Thousand Cuts. Patrick wrote about it on his blog and linked to a thought-provoking and apparently thorough review. The book is about the repeal of the estate tax, which will cost almost $300 billion over the next ten years. Yes, that's billion with a b, as in 1,000 times a million. The tax only affected the richest 0.3% (yes, that's less than 1%) of Americans. How could this tax on the rich be repealed, when money is constantly being refused for social programs that impact millions of Americans, like education and medical care?

The answer is yes, I am naive. But these kinds of things really make me worry about either the way our "leaders" are misleading us or the way our values must be screwed up if we are happy to follow along. In this case, it looks like a serious issue of misrepresentation and special-interest spin; somehow, the supporters of the repeal were able to convince everyone that the tax was unjust (because it's just so wrong to tax billionaires more than the average person) and that the tax would hurt them personally (since the average person stands to inherit an estate worth more than $3.5 million, right?).

Is my blog getting boring? I hope the information is understandable ... and I hope it makes you mad. I find it extremely difficult to care about these policies; they'll get made whether I care or not, and I'm powerless to change them. And yet ... what is the meaning of words like democracy, liberty, justice? If we don't care enough to even pay attention, how can we keep our country's promise alive? If it isn't our job to do that, whose job is it?