To the Rich and Left Wing, Please Don’t Pay Your ‘Fair Share’

Originally Published in Real Clear Markets, 4/15/2019

The left-leaning rich frequently complain that they don’t pay enough in the way of taxes. To right the alleged wrong they claim they’ll vote for politicians who will legislate higher rates of taxation on them. Apparently there’s nobility in self-flagellation.

The problem is that low-tax types on the right encourage the left’s self-abnegation. Apparently they don’t see that their encouragement is more than a bit contradictory. Indeed, when they supposedly call the bluff of witless lefties by telling them to feel free to write a bigger check to the U.S. Treasury, they’re unwittingly reminding us that self-flagellation is very much a bipartisan concept.

They forget that we all suffer the burden of higher tax revenues. More specifically, a $1 billion tax increase on Jeff Bezos is a $1 billion tax increase on all of us. So is it a tax increase on all of us when the guiltiest of the Hollywood rich, desperate to be seen as more than “woke,” go out of their way to brag about how much they pay in taxes. Their stupidity is all of our burden.