- It Depends On Your Definition Of Fairness

Harvey Golub in the WSJ:

President Obama says over and over again that high-income Americans don't pay their fair share of income taxes. He says this with such conviction and confidence that many believe him—the tax code is unfair because high-income people pay too little. True, there is a lot wrong with our tax code and it is unfair, but the president is simply wrong if he believes our highest earners are not paying their fair share.

The top 1% of taxpayers pay more in federal income taxes than the bottom 90%. (The bottom 50% pay no income tax at all.) Clearly, our tax system is highly progressive, either when considering income taxes alone or consolidating personal income, corporate, estate and payroll taxes. I suppose one could argue that the code should be even more progressive, but that is a tough argument to make on the basis of fairness.

The fact is, Obama and the far left's "fairness" brigade don't want anything that the rest of us would think even resembles "Fairness". What Obama wants is the power to decide who pays what. He wants to be the one who says "You... you build windmills so you can pay a little less, but you with the coal mine, you have to pay more. You there, you were a big campaign contributor so you can get a tax break ... this time... but you there who supported my opponent, you must pay much... MUCH more." He's selling it on the premise that it would be more "fair" if we all just left it up to him, but it's not really so.

What his followers want, isn't even that noble. They want the ability to punish people who have more than they do. They want to say "Look great master... that man has a private jet... I don't have a private jet... take his away and give it to me! He has a nice car, but I want a nice car... give me his!" This is a base an evil sentiment, but it's what really drives all the people out there demanding "fairness".

It's the same exact sentiment that drove Rhodesia off the fiscal cliff when all the land owned by white farmers (many had owned the farms for generations) was taken away from them by force and given to black citizens who knew nothing of farming but had good political connections. They said they wanted "fairness" too. That's what "Fairness" means to the far left. Obama knows better than to really give them more than just a taste of it. But that's still what they're after.