There are certain things you just don’t do. You don’t yell fire in a crowded theater, you don’t take candy from a baby, and you certainly don’t complain about not having enough money when you’re super rich, the economy is in the tank, and poverty levels are the highest they’ve been in fifty years. Todd Henderson did the last thing, and I have no confirmation on whether he did the first two.
Who is Todd Henderson? He’s a University of Chicago law professor who blogged about his plight a couple weeks ago. In summary, he complained that making more the $250,000 made it really hard on him and his family. If the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire and he were forced to pay an extra 3% in taxes, then he would find it really hard to keep his kids in private school, live in (what I would assume is) his nice house in a pricey neighborhood, and keep his Mexican groundskeeper and Polish housecleaner employed.
Then someone with half a shred of decency and perspective sat him down and gave him a good talking-to, and Mr. Henderson took down the blog post, apologized for his stupidity, and quit blogging altogether (as if that were the problem). Despite that, his post was saved on the Internet anyway for all the world to see. Thank you, series of tubes.
Surely, as the great sage The Notorious B.I.G. once said, with greater amounts of money in one’s bank account, the greater the perils will follow. But as the great comedian Lewis Black said, when you're rich and pay big taxes, you’re still fucking rich. So it was no surprise Mr. Henderson was on the receiving end of a deluge of negative reaction for whining about not having more money when he was already making six figures. He even got a whole Wall Street Journal article devoted to him because, honestly, if you can’t find a way to live off of $250,000 a year, then you’re doing it wrong.
As someone who hasn’t even sniffed $30,000 in my best year, who was laid off due to my lack of seniority within my department in 2008, who has been working temp jobs ever since because I can’t find a decent job that doesn’t involve being a Mexican groundskeeper or Polish housecleaner, there are many, many things I’d like to say to Mr. Henderson. Many, many things that would make even Lewis Black blush. But Mr. Henderson has received plenty of flame emails to cover that ground, and his apology did seem to indicate that he understands how incredibly awful he was.
So no, I have nothing much to say to Mr. Henderson that hasn’t already been said already. Instead, this is to anyone else who may be reading this. If you’re in the upper tax bracket, do not complain about not having more money. If, in the future, you somehow find yourself in the upper tax bracket by random luck or by marrying a Montgomery Burns, do not complain about not having more money. And, please please please, if I ever find myself in the upper tax bracket, please please please slap me alongside the head if I complain about not having more money. I will have deserved it.
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