Am I Turning "Commie?"

                                                         

Keep an eye on me, folks...I may be turning a little "communist" on you.  You see, I was just reading an article written by Nobel Winner for Economics Robert Shillers  on the growing income gap in America.  Shiller proposes that we might want to consider indexing taxes in a direct ratio to the current income gap between rich and poor in America.  And god help me if at least part of it didn't make sense to me.

Now, settle down, and let me explain.  First of all, I still believe in free markets and free enterprise.  And I do know that a lot of that "income gap" is caused by an ever increasing swath of Americans who just don't want to work...and are being rewarded by our government for not working.  Secondly, the income gap has grown because of the huge increase in internet billionaires up there in Silicon Valley.  And thirdly, given a choice between having a billionaire keep more of his own money, or giving it to a government bureaucrat to grow another costly bureaucracy, I would be on the side of the billionaire.  Finally, if I were ever to embrace  higher taxes on billionaires, it would certainly not include millionaires who've earned their net worth by the sweat of their brow or through family owned businesses.

No, the only ones I would hit on would be those Wall Street rabbits who sit at a trading desk, take advantage of minute little computer spreads, multiplied by a a million trades, and come out earning $100 million a year off the backs of the small investor.  And I would hit on bankers who borrow money from the Fed at 0 percent, then give you a credit card and charge you 15 or 20% for the privilege of using it.  Finally, I would nail those company CEO's that are making 50 to 100 million a year, even as their company's top line declined, along with the small investor's meager share price.

Now let me offer a huge caveat....I would take that additional tax revenue from these non-productive fat cats and I would insist that it go to paying down our national debt and to rebuild our national infrastructure, highways, bridges and obsolete airports...and for no other purpose!  

Just last week we learned that some dude that Yahoo hired from Google didn't work out with the new company...so they gave him something like $58 million dollars to go away!  And this is not an isolated incident..I've read hundreds of these horror stories where massive failure is rewarded!  How the hell is this "free enterprise?"  And how many of those bankers and fat cat Wall Street types walked away with hundreds of millions after causing our entire economy to collapse?  How many went to jail for violating securities laws?  Zip.

So call me a "commie" if you will...but keep in mind that CEO's today are making thousands of times more than the average joe working in their factory or office place.  I read somewhere that the ratio in the prosperous fifties and sixties were about 50 to 1....now it is obscene thousands to one, and they are simply not worth that kinda dough. Besides, these are the dudes that are exporting your jobs to China and India...F**k em!

Whew!  Okay, comrades....have a good day!