A New Robin Hood

Robin Hood is a popular icon. Even my Russian wife knew who he was, as they read Ivanhoe. We don't read Ivanhoe, but they do!

Robin Hood is a popular icon around the world. To quote my wife: "He lived in the forest and robbed bad people." This is a good summary and very fitting with the old Soviet Union's philosophy. "To rob from the rich and give to the poor" could actually be used to summarize many of the political pundit class—the talking heads on Sunday morning "news" shows. These pundits actually express the sentiment with different words. Since they do not wish to admit to "robbing," better talking points are used. Somehow not robbing them is the same as giving them money! But what the government actually does is rob from one kind of rich in order to help one kind of poor. This is what Robin Hood did too.

There is a strong ethnic component to the Robin Hood story. William the Conqueror in 1066 invaded England and defeated the Saxon King Harold. William and his men replaced the Saxon aristocracy with their own men. They were from northern France and spoke French. (As an aside the reason it is pig in the farm but pork on the plate is that the Saxon peasants kept their word—pig—but the Normans kept their word—pork, and both stayed in the resultant English language.)

So Robin Hood would rob the Normans, and give to the Saxons. Robin Hood was actually a part of the aristocracy himself—just the Saxon part of the aristocracy. The reason for the rebellion was that Richard the Lion Hearted was off fighting his wars, and ignoring the people. The “King far away” was a figure of awe, but his brother, Prince John, being close at hand was the stereotypical evil brother. Prince John eventually became King John, as Richard, to put it politely, was not interested in women and had no children. (I will write about King John in my next blog post.)

Our modern Robin Hood government robs some rich people, but gives subsidies and tax breaks to other rich people. Let me give you two examples. If you or I speculate in the stock market we face a maximum tax rate of about 50% (Federal and State). But if someone has a spare $5 million lying around they can give it to a hedge fund, which makes the same kind of investments, but pays a tax rate of 20%.  Estate tax is another way this is done. The wealthy person is subject to the tax, but the very wealthy person is not. The Kennedys have their money in a generation-skipping trust fund headquartered in the Fiji islands. They pay no estate tax.

Another aspect of the “robbing from the rich” is that those active in the robbing, Robin and his Merry Men, needed to eat too. So naturally they kept a portion of the money stolen for themselves. As the Robin Hood in Shrek tells us:

Merry Men: [singing] Ta da, da da da da - whoo! 

Monsieur Hood: I steal from the rich and give to the needy... 

Merry Man: He takes a wee percentage...

Monsieur Hood: But I'm not greedy - I rescue pretty damsels, man I'm good!

Merry Men: What a guy, ha ha, Monsieur Hood!

I am not sure why Robin Hood in Shrek is French, but it is funny. What is not so funny is the growing percentage the government takes to feed the government's many merry men. The original Robin Hood stole from the government and gave to the victims of the government. Today our modern Robin Hood government steals from everyone, stealing less from the favored classes, keeps a huge percentage, and yes, does help people. But most of this help is giving to the middle class not the poor. The middle class votes more often.

We need a new Robin Hood like the original story book hero, who robs from the government and returns it to the taxpayers.

Comments

[Eddie H. Nessul]

What character would BERNIE MADOFF be in the Robin Hood story???

Eddie H. Nessul
Amboy, CA

[[Positive Dennis]]

An associate of the Sheriff of Notingham, after Richard returned.

[eric anderson]

Bernie Madoff was a piker compared to the Ponzi scheme of Social Security and other government promises that can never be fully paid back.