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<\/a>Who are “The Rich?”<\/p>\nLet’s break it down for you.<\/p>\n
The Rich Are Not<\/strong>…: DFL uber-donor Vance Opperman<\/a>, who donates millions to the DFL’s pet causes, and whose income comes largely from dividends and investments.\u00a0 He’s not rich<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Rich Are<\/em>…<\/strong>: The guy who runs the small consulting shop that landed you the IT gig with the company that was hiring.\u00a0 He and his wife – who does the accounting – might break $200K for the year.\u00a0 They<\/em> are “the rich”, in Mark Dayton’s world.\u00a0 Not Vance Opperman, silly reader.<\/p>\n The Rich Are Not<\/strong>…:\u00a0 John Cowles, who donated $2.4 million to help start the Guthrie – in 1960<\/em>, when that was serious money.\u00a0 Who used to publish the left-leaning Star Tribune<\/em>, and who ponied up to help found the center-left MinnPost<\/em> a few years back.\u00a0 He’s also given tens of thousands of dollars to the various groups that funded the epic, toxic sleaze campaign <\/a>that helped squeedge Mark Dayton into office.\u00a0 Cowles, with his money coming from dividends and trusts and all the usual shelters that the super-wealthy can afford?\u00a0 What, you thought he was “the rich?”\u00a0 Of course not!<\/p>\n The Rich Are<\/em>…<\/strong>:\u00a0 Grandma’s oncologist.\u00a0 The guy or gal who spent eight years working his or her ass off taking the hard courses in high school and college to get into med school, then more of the same to survive the weeding-out process during four years of education, an internship and three years of brutal residency designed to test his\/her mettle for the field, leading to post-doctoral training leading to a board-certification and then a few decades of experience that make him able to\u00a0 help Grandma to turn her cancer into a harrowing cautionary story rather than an early good-bye to the grandkids.\u00a0 After all that, the doctor and his\/her spouse – a hospital administrator, as luck would have it – earn a little over $500K, of which about $40,000 currently goes to the state of Minnesota.\u00a0 Since they<\/em> – not John Cowles – are “rich”, that tab is going to go up to almost $70,000.\u00a0 Doc and spouse, of course, still have options; that place in Prescott is looking mighty nice right now.\u00a0\u00a0 Which Prescott – Wisconsin or Arizona?\u00a0 I think they’d both love to have an Oncologist for a neighbor, especially since they’re “rich” – don’t you?<\/p>\n