"The only question is as to sustaining the change [an increase in taxation] before the people. I believe it can be sustained, because it does not increase the tax upon the 'many poor' but upon the 'wealthy few' by taxing the land that is worth $50 or $100 per acre, in proportion to its value, instead of, as heretofore, nor more than that which was worth but $5 per acre. This valuable land, as is well known, belongs, not to the poor, but to the wealthy citizen.
"On the other hand, the wealthy can not justly complain, because the change is equitable within itself, and also a sine qua non to a compliance with the Constitution." - Abraham Lincoln, letter to William S. Wait (March 2, 1839)
Lincoln goes on to cynically observe that even if the wealthy do complain, regardless of fairness, there aren't enough of them to carry an election. But that's beside the point: I bring this up as further evidence of how utterly stupid and ridiculous it is for Barack Obama to be called a communist, Marxist, or socialist simply because of his "spread the wealth" remark (which is almost always cited by critics out of context.)
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Well, Lincoln did receive personal correspondance from Karl Marx (will post the source later), as did Frederick Engels who was a communist. Therefore, Lincoln was a communist! ;)
Well that's prime material for a nutjob Beck conspiracy theory. I caught an episode last week where he linked Obama to Karl Marx because Marx is a social scientist and the University of Chicago was one of the early colleges to set up a social science department.
Seriously, I feel like I've fallen through the rabbit hole everytime I turn on the tv and see this madmad spreading political dementia across our nation.
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