No doubt many raised in
our capitalist society, where inequality rules and excessive incomes
and wealth are seen as a right (and where even the NDP only proposes
a measly 1% tax on excessive wealth), will consider this proposal to
be radical but it is actually quite a modest proposal.
So what is excessive
income and wealth. There are many ways to measure that, many
statistical, but I propose a simpler definition – the amount of
wealth and income where increases have no discernible effect on ones
way of life or standard of living, where the increase is simply not
noticeable in one's day to day life. Let's be generous to the wealthy
in determining such levels. I propose an annual income of $1 million
dollars and total assets of $100 million as the level that triggers
“excessive income and wealth”. Above that no one notices without
reading their financial statements.
The thing about
excessive wealth is that it makes minuscule difference to the
recipients but could make all the world of difference to the poor and
underprivileged and to society as a whole if used for the common
good. I will not even attempt to list what all that excessive wealth
could do if devoted to the common good of society .
But there is another
side to excessive income and wealth – it is highly undemocratic.
The rich do not cling to their excessive wealth because it makes a
difference to their daily lives. They cling to it because it gives
them economic and political power. It is not just a matter of
economic inequality, is a matter of political inequality.
Democracy is based on
equality, one person one vote. Economic power is political power.
Excessive wealth skews political power so that the wealthy have more
of it. Excessive wealth is inherently undemocratic.
So what do we do with
this excessive wealth so that it benefits society. We tax it away so
that it can be used for the common good.
This sounds radical at
first. But what do the wealthy lose in this proposal. Their standard
of living and quality of life does not change. They only thing they
lose is their excessive economic and political power, power that
undermines our democracy.
Postscript
In taxing away
excessive wealth we cannot just require it's conversion to cash to be
paid as taxes. That would obviously be very disruptive to the
economic system. Society (through the government) will take ownership
of these resources in kind and in many cases maintain them while
applying revenues from them to the common good. In some cases they
may need to change the policies of entities that are not acting in
the public interest or divest ownership of entities where that serves
the public interest.
Also this proposal
does not address all the problems with our tax system. For it to be
truly progressive we need to raise the income level that triggers the
payment of taxes and increase the higher marginal tax rates,
including adding marginal tax rates at higher income levels (between
$200,000 and $1 million).
