"Mordre wol out, that see we day by day."

During an extended discussion about the formal mechanics of the word-picture relation comics, I coined what I called "Scott's Rule #23":

[T]he percentage of time spent lecturing other people about how awesome you are is inversely propotional to your actual awesomeness.

Which is to say, the decision to have one of the characters in your comic praise the cleverness of what another one said is supremely lame. At the time, I didn't think I needed to post Scott's Rule #22, what with it being so obvious, but today Chris Muir forced my hand:

Or not. I think the lameness of having one of your characters enthusiastically egg on the lunatic rant of another requires no further definition. Toss in the fact that "You're really cookin'" is a painfully awful pun, and you're left thinking that Chaucer fellow I quoted in the title was onto something. If only someone would do something about Muir's crimes against the English language, freshmen logic, comedy and the comic form . .

Comments

[Karl Steel]

Huh. Where are these 47% of Americans who pay no taxes at all? I guess sales taxes don't count.

[Tom Elrod]

Holy crap, Chris Muir is insane.

[Mike Russo]

I actually kinda read it as the girl trying to talk down her blisteringly insane boyfriend via irony, desperately attempting to convince herself that she hasn't made an enourmous mistake.

But of course, I'm sane, so that's probably not what's actually going on.

[Bob Reed]

I believe that the character is talking about income taxes Karl Steel...

Sales tax is consumption based, just like fuel taxes, so the magnitude of tax money paid increases with a person's consumption. Are your income taxes less than the sales tax you pay each year? I know mine certainly aren't.

And I'm pretty sure you are aware that the writer was referring to the redistribution of wealth through tax credits, or outright welfare style payments. The percentage referenced was one that was fairly well agreed upon during the last election cycle, although the exact number of 47 was never cited; instead the 40 to 50 range was usually referred to...

As far as the comic itself is concerned? I don't generally visit the writers site, although some bloggers link to it occasionally.

[John]

According to an estimate from the Tax Policy Center, about whom I know nothing, 47% of american households will owe no federal income taxes in 2009.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/30/pf/taxes/who_pays_taxes/index.htm

What's fun on that page is that a full 1.5% of household with incomes over one million dollars will owe no federal taxes. In fact, 760,000 households with incomes over $100,000 will owe no federal taxes.

Somehow, I don't think that's what's upsetting Muir.

Also, why is the dude staring out the window, ranting about illegal immigrants and holding a pot?

[Bob Reed]

"What's fun on that page is that a full 1.5% of household with incomes over one million dollars will owe no federal taxes. In fact, 760,000 households with incomes over $100,000 will owe no federal taxes."

John,
I'm not trying to defend any wealth individuals, but I would like to make just two points.
1) Small businesses often file the same as individuals, using the same forms but able to take advantage of more deductions.
2) Here in New York City area, if one has an average sized home and even one dependant, it is quite easy to offset much of what you pay in tax on a 100k/year salary. Heck, I'm sure a sizeable portion of te 760k people cited could be distributed between NYC, DC, and LA...

http://www.cbo.gov/publications/collections/taxdistribution.cfm

See some relevant data here, by the non-partisan CBO. The highest quintile of earners earn around 50% of the money in the nation and pay a little more than 75% of the taxes. There's a lot more data from CBO that's illuminating...

I'm not trying to be argumentative but merely pointing out some more information...

Best Wishes

[John]

Bob,

The highest quintile of earners earn around 50% of the money in the nation and pay a little more than 75% of the taxes.

It's informative to read from the page that you linked. Here's an interesting point: in 2006, the highest quintile of households received 55.7% of the pre-tax income. That same quintile received 52.1% of the after-tax income.

The average pre-tax income of the top 1% of households was $1,743,700. The average after-tax income was $1,200,300. By comparison, the average after-tax income of the bottom quintile was $16,500.

I'm pretty sure that "redistribution of wealth" requires some actual, well, redistribution.

[Karl Steel]

What they said. Also, Bob, you can believe that Chris was referring to income tax, but the comic doesn't actually *say* income tax. If you have to correct his claims to make them (sort of) correct, then they're not correct. As far as I'm concerned? Going back to the marginal tax rates on the wealthy from the 1950s would be fine by me.

At any rate, the rest of that character's speech is just paranoid nonsense: education steeped in anti-American ideology (like, what, calculus?)? union thugs (I'm in a union: I don't feel very thuggish...)? FCC on rampage? free speech zones (oops, sorry, wrong president, doesn't count)? Illegal immigrants bribed to vote? WTF? All of this is just nonsense, and it's concluded by quoting Cindy Sheehan?

I'm watching a descent into madness.

Now, it may well be that this character isn't just Chris Muir's mouthpiece. Maybe it's all a performance piece about the frothy inaccurate claims of the paranoid right? I expect the character to finally realize the irony of ranting about illegal immigrants (who, you know, don't "produce" anything) while chopping produce. He'll look down at his countertop, his brain, shattered by cognitive dissonance, will throw him off the grid and drive him grow all his food himself, to demand that any product he buys--clothing, vegetables, meat--be certified non-illegal: Man of His Convictions Man! Up, up, and away, carried aloft on your beautiful soul! That would be a comic I'd read!

Assuming, of course, Muir could muster something up other than writing speeches, stuffing them in a character's mouth, and then providing another character whose only role is to shout 'amen!' That, as SEK observed, is just plain sucky comic-ing.