Tax the rich, 99% edition
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PANDEMIC WEALTH
Noted philosopher Bruce Lee once warned a disciple (in Enter the Dragon, since you ask) against letting the medium distract him from the message: “it’s like a finger pointing away to the moon, don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.” As I read some of the many articles about the dress that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore to the Met Gala, I couldn’t help feeling we could all have done with a quick slap from the great martial artist. Ignore the provenance of the dress, excitable columnists, and read the words: tax the rich.
We are reaching the point in a crisis when the minds of government start to turn away from firefighting and towards long-term solutions. This is not to say that Covid-19 is on the way out – tragically, in many places it’s gearing up for a new wave – but that politicians are getting bored of tackling the virus, and looking for new things to talk about, like how to afford all the measures they’ve put in place.
Here in Britain, the government has announced tax increases to help pay for the health service and social care, and the cost will overwhelmingly fall on income from work (rather than on pensions, or income from capital), which – coincidentally, I’m sure – means the ruling party’s own coalition of voters will pay less of the bill than the opposition’s. Similarly, the latest proposals from Congress have some hefty tax rises, but nothing to dent the huge fortunes of America’s merry band of billionaires.