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Show 17 z(c Opinion Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008 Page 13 Pride: Double-edged sword reveals insecurity •I continued from page 12 from a series of studies pride is always a doublethat couldn't have been edged sword. In one study, 99 UC Davis released at a more appropriate moment. Not surprising, undergraduates were asked she and her co-investiga- to recall a group achievetors found that displays of ment, how they felt and the hubristic group pride "might level of threat, security and actually be a sign of group competition they thought insecurity as opposed to a their group was experiencing at the time. Wnat was sign of strength." Before you jump to any revealed was a direct corconclusions, let me first say relation between feelings that Pickett and her col- of insecurity and hubristic leagues don't appear to be pride. In other words, the suspicious of tne concept more people felt that their of national pride. Indeed, group was doing poorly or Pickett makes clear that was vulnerable to threats collective pride can serve from other groups, the more positive functions, not least hubristic pride they experiof which are to promote enced when they recalled group harmony and cohe- a group achievement. You sion. Communicating col- could use words like "defenlective pride can also nelp a sive" and "compensatory" nation attain greater power to describe it. and influence. But these But perhaps the most researchers have bolstered compelling of the studcommon sense: Group ies surveyed 98 UC Davis undergraduates about their are more patriotic than feelings toward their foot- the rest. They suggest that ball team's 20-17 upset over not all pride is good, and Stanford a few years ago. they raise the question of After having the students whether hubristic pride is read an article about the actually counterproductive. game, they were asked what After all, if flag-waving bragthey thought contributed to gadocio is no more than a the win; was it effort, ability mask for deep doubts about or luck? What the research- the viability of your "side," ers found was that the it just makes sense to put students who thought the down Old Glory and stop victory was just plain luck shouting. That's the only were more likely to have way you're going to be able hubristic pride than the stu- to engage in the hard work, dents who thought the win sacrifice and practice you was because of hard work. need for authentic achieveThe "luck" group's pomp- ment and authentic pride. ous pride was a mask for May the real patriots real doubts that the Aggies win. could beat the Cardinal again any time soon. This editorial was written Clearly, these studies for the Los Angeles Times shed some light on all the by Gregory Rodriguez, loose-lipped campaign director of the California rhetoric about who and Fellows Program at the New what parts of the country America Foundation. Wealth: Misdefinition distracts from distribution LI continued from page 12 $7 million in current dollars to equal the $1 million of 1960, according to MeasuringWorth.com. By the same measure, $250,000 today is the same as roughly $35,000 in 1960. Did anyone think that an annual income of $35,000 was rich then? (The answer is no. Not even close.) In fact, a household earning $250,000 today would have difficulty squeezing out even $50,000 in savings every year - : much less quitting work ana buying the second homes and yachts and private planes that we associate with the truly rich. Obama must realize this. So what's really going on here? Just this: Obama wants to raise taxes but doesn't want to hit those perceived as middle class. But his inaccurately low definition actually hurts liberals, for a number of reasons. For one thing, there are no doubt a substantial number among the 12 million-plus households reporting $100,000-$200,000 in annual income who are put off by the prospect of having to pay higher taxes if their income grows. The inaccurate definition also alienates allies among the right who might support higher taxes at higher levels of income. Conservative columnist Ben Stein, for instance, is pushing for a 10 percent surcharge on the incomes of the truly rich - those whose incomes exceed $5 million - to be devoted to health care. Liberals are paying little attention. It's also based on a fallacy that if you want to generate any real government revenue, you have to increase taxes on the many households that earn between $250,000 and $500,000 a year. Yet there is now more taxable income among the 140,000 households that report earning more than $2 million annually than there is among the 10 times as many that earn between $250,000 and $500,000. This does not mean that taxes shouldn't be touched for those making between $250,000 and $500,000, but why should they pay the same rate as someone making $2.5 milliorvor $25 million? Finally, the misdefinition distracts from the maldistribution of wealth - which is much worse than the maldistribution of income - and from the focus on policies to address it, such as the inheritance tax or a more progressive capital-gains tax. Maybe what we need is a new term for those who have a lot of money but not enough to just stop working. The Near Rich? The Kinda Comfortable? The Ultra-Middle Class? If Obama and populist liberals won't define wealth accurately, then taxes will never be as progressive as they should be, and they will continue to hurt their own cause. After all, if millions of voters are unfairly labeled rich by the Democrats, they might as well vote for the party of the rich - which is, of course, the Republican Party. This editorial was written for the Los Angeles Times by Mitchell Rofsky, former chairman of Business for Social Responsibility, headed the Working Assets Mutual Funds, a socially responsible mutual fund. 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