"
It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.
Who made this quote? Was it some wide-eyed radical socialist? Was it a liberal egghead who is indoctrinating young innocents on some college campus? Was it a communist? Who would dare preach the redistribution of wealth? I want to send the name of this person to Mr. Limbaugh or Mr. Hannity, so they can denounce this individual on their respective radio shows. But when they realize who said this quote, they might be a little embarrassed. His name was Adam Smith in a book called Wealth of Nations.
For many years I have heard the rant of those right-wing talkers justify free market capitalism as the answer to all problems. They have fooled their loyal dittohead audiences into believing that their enemies were not the 1% of America that owns 50% of our nations wealth. No, your enemy was the gays, feminazis, minorities, and illegal immigrants who were either indoctrinating your kids, stealing your jobs, and taking away your guns.
However, I believe now for the first time their audience realizes that it is the power elite and not them who are supported by Limbaugh and friends. They are realizing for the first time that the rich not only have been contributing less than their fair share, but also has been stealing for years from the public treasury. Ronald Reagan used to rant about those welfare queens who drove around in Cadillacs. Other conservatives would talk about the undeserving poor who lived off of the public dole. Well, these AIG executives I will now call the undeserving rich who are also living off the public dole. No, they do not own Cadillac, but a Benz, private airplane and mansion as well as a membership in an exclusive country club--all at our expense.
Adam Smith understood that if you have a society in which only a few have wealth and power while the masses starve, that society will eventually be torn apart by violence and revolution. Ben Franklin once wrote that if a wealthy man does not share in his good fortune when those around him starve, will eventually have his wealth taken by those in want. Now these AIG executives are those with good fortune and their neighbors, which total 300 million people, will take it by the force of a confiscatory tax.
The more those who have refuse to contribute their fair share to the public expense will see much of their ill-gotten wealth taken through an even steeper confiscatory tax. The power elite in this country do not realize that our President is a very moderate man who only wants a small increase in our progressive income tax for the wealthy. If they fight even a moderate raise so we can have a safety net of protection for the poor and middle class, more radical people may be elected who will begin to really confiscate their wealth.
The right does not realize that what those of us who are moderate liberals are trying to save their beloved capitalist system as Roosevelt did in the 1930s. Capitalism must be regulated and taxed to prevent huge concentrations of wealth so that others can use the opportunities of a free market to create wealth for themselves and be protected from the boom and bust cycle that a free market always produces. No one in this wealthy country should ever want for shelter, food, access to education or health care. And if some of the wealthy want to leave this country rather than be taxed a little more, so be it. Others will take their place to create wealth--except these individuals will be our "deserving rich."