Have you seen the video of Romney speaking to a room full of rich donors? He said that 47 percent of the voters voted for Obama, and those 47 percent don’t pay taxes, and think the government owes them a living, health care and housing.

According to the Tax Policy Center, “46.4 percent of American households paid no federal income tax. The same data shows, however, that nearly two-thirds of households that paid no income tax did pay payroll taxes. And most people also pay some combination of state, local, sales, gas and property taxes.”

So, many of the households who paid no income tax included wage earners, but, they earned a very low income.

And, “Smaller but significant numbers of the higher-income earners are also exempt: The same data shows that in 2011, 78,000 tax filers with incomes between $211,000 and $533,000 paid no income taxes; 24,000 households with incomes of $533,000 to $2.2 million paid no income taxes, and 3,000 tax filers with incomes above $2.2 million paid no income taxes.”

I am one of the 47 percent that paid no income tax. I paid into Social Security all my working life. The government is not giving me anything. Secondly, Medicare is not free. The government takes almost $100 out of my Social Security check, with which it pays 75 percent of my health care bills. I pay $155 a month to a private insurer to cover the last 25 percent. That is $250 a month more than free.

I think everyone should have health care, just as they do in every other civilized country in the world. It is a right. Capitalism should not mean that you must die if you can’t pay. Or, the next worse thing: go bankrupt.

Also, there is an underlying assumption here: People should work for what they get and not expect help from anyone or any government. Most of us have some sympathy with that point of view.

But, Romney’s five kids will never have to work. They are each getting $20 million without lifting a finger. So, the message is that his kids should not have to work for it, but yours should.

Poor kids, on the other hand, should not have anything, evidently, because their parents are poor, and for that, they should suffer.

But Romney had not achieved the zenith of his hypocrisy. In a second video I saw, Romney said that he would stop jobs from going to China; but, when he led Bain Capital, that is exactly what he did: The companies he consulted sent jobs to China and other places where labor was cheap.

A friend of mine said that his main concern was the enormous federal deficit, and so, he was going to vote for the businessman, meaning Romney.

What a strange notion! Consider that if you look back on the gigantic scandals of the last 30 years, savings and loan, dot.com, Long Term Capital, Enron, the collapse of Wall Street in 2008, all of them were caused by “businessmen.”

Unless you are a right-wing millionaire or richer, you are voting against your own interest if you vote for Romney.

Please, tell me why you would do that?

Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.