Joshua has visited this forum a number of times, and I'd be surprised if he hasn't already read this thread. He seems pretty astute about googling his own name and links to his site, so he usually chimes in here when we send enough traffic his way.
Like all bloggers, his image and persona are carefully cultivated (and therefore somewhat suspect.) He responds to attacks both personal and ideological, as any profitable online persona should.
Personally, I find his site a fascinating mixture of carefully thought out positions and huge gaping blind spots.
In this particular case, the article's focus on increased tax rates seems to miss the whole point of Bernie's tax plan, which is to support the exact ideals Joshua lays out at the top of his post, by taxing people who have disproportionately benefited from our economic system in order to provide greater opportunity for people who are currently repressed by it, for example by providing free health care and college education. If Americans didn't have to pay for those things, think of how much free money they would suddenly have to pay increased taxes.
Bernie argues that total costs for most people will go down under his plan, while protecting the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population. Yes, tax rates would go up, but your family and the nation as a whole would be financially better off as a result. Or so says Bernie Sanders, anyway, and that key perspective seems to be missing from Joshua's analysis. Like all wealthy members of the investor class, he cares most about protecting his own privileged position in the current economic hierarchy.
