Things I Don't Care about

In previous years, I only cared about foreign policy issues because I felt that the economy would creep along and that there existed a consensus that our social net was worth preserving, even if it meant tinkering around to make it solvent. With the attack of the last Administration on our basic civil liberties and the collapse of our financial system in 2008, I have tended more inward. I find it strange to have the only sane discussions on democracy, human rights and the rule of law in seminars conducted in African states who don't practice these concepts. But the political debate in the United States has become too surreal and unsettling. Perhaps, it is simply the economic tensions of the times--a generation seeing boom years disappear over night and structural unemployment become the norm--that accounts for the eruption of the extremes. Perhaps, it is the latent racism that has plagued our society from its foundation. Whatever the cause, the increased polarization of our society threatens the union. Concepts in our democracy that have been accepted and assumed by all now are debated as if they were foisted on a large unsuspecting sector of our society.

Since there are so many issues coming to the fore, it's best to be selective about what one cares about. The first step in this process is to list what issues one doesn't care about.

I don't care about:
1. The estate tax. I won't have anything to brag about and it will escape taxes anyway. Beside, I will be dead.
2. I don't care about increasing taxes for the upper income brackets. Although I have few chances of reaching those brackets, if I did I would be grateful enough of my good fortune to willingly pay taxes. I also don't believe Americans will cease overnight to want to become rich. I wish they would refrain from this dream.
3. I don't care about capital gains taxes since people with 501Ks don't pay that anyway and I never hold stocks as long as a year anyway.
4. I don't even care about real estate taxes. This year was the first year where my real estate taxes exceeded what I paid in New Jersey on a home worth one-fifth of mine in Virginia.
5. I don't care if I am compelled to buy health insurance. I'm compelled to buy car, home and do pay life insurance. So what's the big deal?
6. I don't care about corporate taxes. Only 26% of American corporations pay taxes anyway and these solid citizens didn't create any jobs in ten years and are sitting on trillions of dollars to bluff our President.
7. I don't care if they raise the limit on social security taxes even if I pay more if it keeps the system solvent.
8. I don't care if the British are annoyed by attacks on BP if they pay their freight. I'm not responsible for British pensioners.
9. I don't care about the deficit. I will after we recover economically. I also believe the deficit can be managed without the dire cuts to Social Security and Medicare that people advocate.
10. I don't care if the President of the United States were born in Kenya. Just prove his mother wasn't an American.