Raise My Taxes, Please!

I'll be the first to admit that 2009 was not a great year, incomewise. But -- on the optimistic assumption that 2010 will be better -- I want to be on record, the day before Tax Day, saying, Raise my taxes, please.

In this, happily, I'm not alone.

NPR ran a nice piece on Morning Edition today (click here for print version; audio is here) on "some of the rich ask for higher taxes." Among the people quoted is Jeffrey Hollander, a co-founder of Seventh Generation eco-products, who says that so-called trickle-down economics is "really about keeping money in the pockets of people who already have too much money."

Hollander and others are members of the Responsible Wealth Project of United for a Fair Economy, which (to quote their website), holds that "concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart."

Applause!

In fact, that position makes so much sense to me, I have to stop and ask -- why on earth isn't every American a member of United for a Fair Economy?

I blame the "bootstraps" myth -- the idea that any American can, purely by his or her own effort, rise from the deepest poverty to the greatest wealth.

It's a great story, but it's a myth.

In fact, it's the most dangerous myth I know.

No one does it alone. Not only are there innumerable people who propelled Joe Bootstraps on his way (whom he is now conveniently forgetting -- hello, Mom and Dad? Third-grade teacher Mrs. Benton? Boy Scout leader Mr. O'Hanlon? Rabbi Shlomo Ereritz? High-school science teacher Mr. Yee? You get the idea.), there are also innumerable institutions of law and government that made it possible for Joe to succeed.

Would Joe have succeeded without the trust that's embedded in a working economy grounded in the rule of law?

His first customers could be confident that if he were merely a flimflam artist, sooner or later regulators would find him out and he would be prosecuted and at least a portion of their lost funds would be returned.

His first employees could be confident that, were his interview promises to prove false, there was some legal recourse to which they could turn.

His first suppliers could be confident that, should Joe neglect to pay them promptly, they too had legal recourse.

You get the idea.

I try to keep good company, so I'm with Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. on this: "Taxes are the price we pay for civilization."

I want more civilization, so go ahead, Tax me more.