Bloomberg View: The 47% Is Just as Dumb as the 1%

On the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, a video surfaced of Mitt Romney telling donors that the nation is divided based on the amount of federal income tax we pay. Speaking at a Florida dinner, the Republican nominee for president imposed a metaphorical quarantine on the “47 percent” of Americans who pay no federal income tax and who, he said, “are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”

In the past year, many members of the “1 percent” were no doubt surprised to learn from Occupy Wall Street that they are at war with the vast majority of their fellow citizens. Quite a few of the 76 million American “tax units” without federal income tax liability were perhaps equally perplexed to discover that they are too lazy to take responsibility for themselves.