Yesterday, as Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland announced a plan to raise the gas tax in Maryland by 15% over three years to repair all those potholes and bridges which are in danger of falling down, Grover Nordquist was outside with the Tea Party spouting his "No New Taxes" pledge.
I applaud my Governor for having the courage to do the right thing, but I have no delusions that other states will follow suit. We all know that the probability of raising taxes in Congress verges on nil. Perhaps people will look at Greece and see what a regressive tax system brought on by the International Monetary Fund does to the average working person. They, too, don't tax the rich.
I have a solution below the jump which doesn't involve taxes.
I have an assumption that, in a country where 85% of the people consider themselves Christians, a large portion of the 400 richest Americans would fall into that category. Those 400 people have over 50% of the wealth in this country.
Only 2 or 3 of them have come out and said that they are undertaxed. The Republicans feel that it is their job to protect this class from taxes "because they generate all the wealth".
Ok, so as Christians, I'm sure the 400 are well acquainted with the expectation to tithe to their chosen religion. Why? Because it supports their church and religious community.
Right now, the other community they live in which has made them spectacularly wealthy is in serious trouble. Regardless of how we got here, the country will not survive in a future where the poor get poorer. There will be the reckoning when the poor get so desperate that they resort to violence. We are not there yet.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said
Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.
If taxes are not going to be sufficient to keep this civilized society, it is time for the 1% to pay back to the country that gave them all that they have. I am suggesting that the 1% voluntarily tithe 10% of their gross income for the next three years back to the US Government to be used to reduce the deficit.
I say gross income because we know their net income is largely zero so they don't need to pay taxes. I include dividend returns as income so that they include the full value of their wealth increase for 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Matt Yglesias put the extent of the disparity of income and taxes in perspective yesterday in a Think Progress piece on Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan. Look carefully at those graphics.
The 1% can afford this. The 1% cannot afford not to do this.
And while I'm in the 99% but earning a very low end six figure income, I'll match this tithe if 100 of those 400 wealthiest Americans take up this challenge. I hope I have to write that check.