Last year, Elon Musk paid over 11 billion dollars in income tax, more than the amount paid by every single person I know COMBINED. Yet for all that I have no desire to see him get special privileges, or to have his complaints be heard over other people’s. I know we live in the real world where money buys access, but we should all strive to live in a better world where all are presumed equal regardless of wealth. So if Elon Musk shouldn’t get special favors, why should California or New Jersey?

California and New Jersey have been described as “maker” states, in comparison to “taker” states like Mississippi and New Mexico. California and New Jersey residents pay much more to the federal government than their state collectively receives, and vice versa for Mississippi and Mexico. This has led some lawmakers, like Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) to call out the “moocher” states, and say that laws should be written to benefit the people of his “maker” state, by lowering their tax burden or enacting their preferred policies.

I’ve seen this exact line of reasoning before all across social media. When Republicans complain about the priorities of the government, Democrats come out of the woodwork to say that since blue states pay more tax, red states need to shut up and put up. Yet this is an absurd, Romney-esque line of reasoning that would have been utter heresy in 2012, the idea that wealthier groups of people should be heard over the voices of poorer groups. The next time Gottheimer complains about Musk, will he remember to shut up and put up since Musk pays more taxes than almost his entire state populations combined?

I think this belies the maddening hypocrisy of the maker/taker argument, it was true when Romney said it and it’s true when Gottheimer and lefties online say it. There is ALWAYS someone richer than you, and if you wouldn’t bend the knee to them then no one should bend the knee to you. Furthermore we live in a democracy, one man one vote. The votes of the poor carry just as much weight as the votes of the rich, and there is no special provision that says otherwise. That goes for poor people just as much as poor states. If Democrats want to be the party of the people, I’d better never hear another one of them insinuate that rich voters matter more than poor voters.