I caught a very interesting bit of trivia on the radio this morning and I couldn’t wait to share it.

I knew that the word “silhouette” was French because it’s retardedly spelled (stupid French). But I didn’t know it’s origin was economic.

A silhouette is an image portrayed in shadow, a void that implies an object rather than the object itself being portrayed. In the late 18th century, if you couldn’t afford an expensive portrait, you could settle for a silhouette portrait in which your profile is traced from your shadow.

Here’s where it gets interesting. (I promise.) The word “silhouette” comes from Etienne de Silhouette who was the French finance minister the late 1750’s. Back then France was at war with England and they were running out of money. So Silhouette came up with an idea that sounded great on paper (or in speeches).

There were a few really rich people in France and a whole bunch of poor people. So, rather than try and tax a bunch of poor people, Silhouette decided to only tax the rich, and he taxed the snot out of them. He taxed them to the point that the wealth of the few was nearly spent. They were forced to melt down their golden trinkets and silverware in order to pay the taxes.

With much of the wealth spent, no one could afford painted portraits, so they resorted to cheap shadow paintings. It became a running joke that Silhouette had turned France’s wealth into a shadow of what it had been before. And the shadow paintings became known as silhouettes.

I wonder what item will be called an obama after he taxes the wealth of America into oblivion.

…

In case you were wondering (or even if you never have) I found a great resource to help you understand exactly how taxes are paid in the U.S.

The National Taxpayers Union breaks down the percentage of taxes paid by the taxpayer’s percentile of AGI. (That’s adjusted gross income, the number calculated by your 1040 tax form.)

In 2006, the top 1% of earners (that’s the 3 million richest people in the U.S., with an average income around $400,000) paid almost 40% of all the taxes that the government received, while the bottom 50% (150 million people with an average income less than $32,000) paid less than 3% of the tax receipts. And this is with all the Bush tax cuts in place! And Obama still wants to raise taxes on the rich. Apparently he thinks that they need to pay even more. 50%? 60%? Maybe he should do like Silhouette did and make the richest 1% pay all 100% of the taxes.

How exactly does he expect to make poor people richer by making rich people poorer? It didn’t work in France and it won’t work here either.