Ben Stein has an interesting op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled You’re Rich? Terrific. Now Pay Up. (registration required, link will expire soon; sorry) in which he reveals some interesting thoughts on the rich and “superrich:”
The real problem is the difference between the rich — including rich oil people, of whom there are not many, but there are enough — and the poor. It is up to the government to redress this extraordinary difference in incomes of the rich and the nonrich, even at the margins.
What Congress can do, and should do, is address the stunning underpayment of military men and women and the staggering budget deficits that will be a burden on our posterity for decades, by raising the taxes on the rich. It’s fine that there are rich people. It’s even fine that there are superrich people.
But if they are superrich, they derive special benefits from life in the United States that the nonrich don’t. For one thing, they can make the money in a safe environment, which is not true for the rich in many countries. It is just common decency that they should pay much higher income taxes than they do. Taxes for the rich are lower than they have been since at least World War II — that is to say, in 60 years.
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Whatever rationale there may have been in 2001 for lowering their taxes is long gone. It’s time for them — us, because it includes me — to pay their (our) share.It’s not about oil. It’s about fairness.
Great article; too bad it won’t change a thing…
