The NYTimes has an editorial today that
1) determines that there is a growing discrepancy between the rich and the poor.
(Particularly the ratio of the average income of the nation’s richest 1 percent to the median household income has grown from 12.6 times during Reagan years to 36 times now.)
2) Without direct evidence determines that this leads directly to the rich buying the government.
3) Again without direct evidence, decides, somehow, that 36 times is nearing the tipping point of 40 times.
(the tipping point means “that it’s bad for our democracy”)
4) Conclusion…..a special tax for the income that is greater than 36 times median household income.
Thus allowing people to get richer as long as the median household income also gets richer.
And where would the results of this tax go?
Who the hell knows? The oped never suggests where to spend the money, just to take it so that point 2 doesn’t happen.
Pretty much the authors of this oped, Ian Ayres and Aaron Edlin, are sure that your money is not your own. What cracks me up is they don’t really think it belongs to “we the people” either. Just some government that is going to take this money so no one gets too rich.
Enough is enough. Congress should reform our tax law to put the brakes on further inequality. Specifically, we propose an automatic extra tax on the income of the top 1 percent of earners — a tax that would limit the after-tax incomes of this club to 36 times the median household income.
Importantly, our Brandeis tax does not target excessive income per se; it only caps inequality.
“Rich, greedy corporations are exercising undue influence over our government. We need to give the government more power to regulate these rich greedy corporations.”
Made Jimi P’s Five worst econiomic ideas of 2011:
http://blog.american.com/2011/12/the-5-worst-economic-ideas-of-2011-and-12-great-ones-for-2012/