OWS Now Using Robin Hood as Mascot

[Ben]

It truly cracks me up that progressives always do this with the Robin Hood Analogy. Robin Hood is all about small government, low taxes. The Robin Hood "rich" is the government.

[Homer] You couldn’t be more wrong, Lisa. If I didn’t have this gun, the King of England could just walk in here anytime he wants and start shoving you around. [/Homer]

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/10/19/occupiers-new-mascot-anti-tax-crusader-robin-hood/

[Jamisjockey]

IIRC, from Robin Hood, the Sheriff was corrupt, too.  Taxing the snot out of the people.

[MicroBalrog]

Ayn Rand.

Once more before her time:

Ragnar Danneskjold: "But I’ve chosen a special mission of my own. I’m after a man whom I want to destroy. He died many centuries ago, but until the last trace of him is wiped out of men’s minds, we will not have a decent world to live in."

Hank Rearden: "What man?"

Ragnar: "Robin Hood."

http://thatsawesome.blogspot.com/2004/10/robin-hood-is-evil.html

[Ben]

I think Rand is wrong here. I know there are various iterations of the Robin Hood legend, but in most every one I'm familiar with, the government (via the Sheriff) takes most everything from the producers via taxes. Robin Hood is simply giving a tax refund.

[Northwoods]

Yep.  Back in those days "the rich" were the kings, princes, lords, etc.  They formed the national and local goverments, and had the power to levy taxes as well as dispense legal judgements.  Robin Hood "stealing" from "the rich" back then would be akin to taking money from the IRS and giving it back to the taxpayers.  Except that for all our complaining about taxes we still pay far, far less as a proportion than medievil Britons were subject to.

[HankB]

Yep.  Back in those days "the rich" were the kings, princes, lords, etc.  They formed the national and local goverments, and had the power to levy taxes as well as dispense legal judgements.  Robin Hood "stealing" from "the rich" back then would be akin to taking money from the IRS and giving it back to the taxpayers.  Except that for all our complaining about taxes we still pay far, far less as a proportion than medievil Britons were subject to.

I recall reading somewhere that the tax rate back then was only 30% . . . and you only had the landholder (baron, duke, whatever) collecting from you.

[makattak]

Yep.  Back in those days "the rich" were the kings, princes, lords, etc.  They formed the national and local goverments, and had the power to levy taxes as well as dispense legal judgements.  Robin Hood "stealing" from "the rich" back then would be akin to taking money from the IRS and giving it back to the taxpayers.  Except that for all our complaining about taxes we still pay far, far less as a proportion than medievil Britons were subject to.

The tax rate was not the problem. You can't tax people who are barely above subsistence very much.

The problem was a lack of freedom and governmental control of property. (Which is, of course, part of the lack of freedom.)

[Perd Hapley]

I recall reading somewhere that the tax rate back then was only 30% . . . and you only had the landholder (baron, duke, whatever) collecting from you.

I thought there were some mandatory contributions to the church, too, but I'm not sure about that.

[Tallpine]

I thought there were some mandatory contributions to the church, too, but I'm not sure about that.

Only if you wanted to go to heaven 

[agricola]

I thought there were some mandatory contributions to the church, too, but I'm not sure about that.

10% before tax, and they would also expect you to pay for crusades, when the Pope needed a new hat, and numerous other things.  Nor did they die out with the Reformation - there were tithe riots in my little area of Wales within living memory (the farmers resented paying a tithe to a church that noone belonged to... though the 1880s were when things were really fierce):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/history/pages/tithe.shtml

[MechAg94]

I don't know if they did it like I have heard a lot of old Catholic areas did.  I assume so.  Everything you did at the Church came at a price.  Marriage, Christening, baptism, etc all required a donation to the Church.  I think that if nothing else is where a lot of the stuff comes from saying you have to do those ceremonies to be saved. 

[Fly320s]

Can we call the OWS people Owwies?  That's what they sound like, "Owwie, my pu**y hurts."

[Perd Hapley]

10% before tax, and they would also expect you to pay for crusades, when the Pope needed a new hat, and numerous other things.  Nor did they die out with the Reformation

I don't know about your side of the pond, but it seems many Americans think that the Reformation saw an end to religious war or established churches, or something. Even Oxford grads like Dr. Richard Land.

[MicroBalrog]

I thought there were some mandatory contributions to the church, too, but I'm not sure about that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_tax

[doczinn]

He is held to be the first man who assumed a halo of virtue by practicing charity with wealth which he did not own, by giving away goods which he had not produced, by making others pay for the luxury of his pity. He is the man who became a symbol of the idea that need, not achievement, is the source of rights, that we don’t have to produce, only to want, that the earned does not belong to us, but the unearned does.

THAT's the Robin Hood who's the enemy. That's also the Robin Hood the OWieS idolize.

But really, Robin Hood was taking from armed robbers and giving back to rightful owners. The fact that the robbers were rich and their victims poor isn't really relevant to the moral of the story.

[Jamie B]

A much better choice would have been Zorro, the Gay Blade!

Probably could still get George Hamilton for their spokesman!

[TechMan]

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/galactic-greed.jpg

[Perd Hapley]

Speaking of the Left Wing and Robin Hood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACR2RUOPIg

[stevelyn]

I think Rand is wrong here. I know there are various iterations of the Robin Hood legend, but in most every one I'm familiar with, the government (via the Sheriff) takes most everything from the producers via taxes. Robin Hood is simply giving a tax refund.

I agree. Robin Hood was anti-tyrannical govt and fought against a corrupt nobility. He would have seen the OWS people as useful idiots and wouldn't have hesitated sticking any one of them with an arrow given a good enough excuse.