Todd Henderson, professeur de droit à l'université de Chicago, revient ici sur sa décision de publier puis d'effacer un billet expliquant pourquoi les couples comme le sien gagnant plus de 250 000$ par an (mais pas tellement plus), et qui pourraient perdre les réductions d'impôts consenties durant la présidence de George W. Bush, ne se sentent pas riches. Il précise qu'il n'a pas supprimé le billet à cause des commentaires haineux qu'il a reçus mais plutôt en raison de la réaction de sa femme, qui ne partage pas son opinion sur le sujet et ne veut pas que soient publiées des informations sur leur situation financière.

Quoi qu'il en soit, Bradford DeLong, professeur d'économie, a retrouvé le billet d'origine du professeur Henderson et l'a publié sur son blogue. J'en cite un extrait dans le texte :

The biggest expense for us is financing government. Last year, my wife and I paid nearly $100,000 in federal and state taxes, not even including sales and other taxes. This amount is so high because we can't afford fancy accountants and lawyers to help us evade taxes and we are penalized by the tax code because we choose to be married and we both work outside the home. (If my wife and I divorced or were never married, the government would write us a check for tens of thousands of dollars. Talk about perverse incentives.)

Our next biggest expense, like most people, is our mortgage. Homes near our work in Chicago aren't cheap and we do not have friends who were willing to help us finance the deal. We chose to invest in the University community and renovate and old property, but we did so at an inopportune time.

We pay about $15,000 in property taxes, about half of which goes to fund public education in Chicago. Since we care about the education of our three children, this means we also have to pay to send them to private school. (...) We try to invest in our retirement by putting some money in the stock market, something that these days sounds like a patriotic act. Our account isn't worth much, and is worth a lot less than it used to be. (...)

At the end of all this, we have less than a few hundred dollars per month of discretionary income. We occasionally eat out but with a baby sitter, these nights take a toll on our budget. Life in America is wonderful, but expensive.

Le chroniqueur et économiste Paul Krugman, qui a signé lundi un article intitulé The Angry Rich, a réagi au texte du professeur Henderson en évoquant ici cette époque révolue où les gens gagnant de bons salaires avaient honte de se plaindre publiquement de leur situation financière.