Dear Professor Krugman:
Taxes are a relic of the feudal monarch’s and lords’ proprietary powers over the people and the realm -- the “rent” these charged others for the use of their belongings. Once individual sovereignty, citizenship, replaced the bogus sovereignty of the monarch, taxes became just as anomalous as did serfdom. Some way needs to be found to pay for things that does not involve this immoral, unjust confiscation -- e.g., contract fees.So, this more recent view accepts that the wealthy own their stuff, not we or the government or the majority. To lament this is like fussing about the fact that beautiful people are better off than those not so pretty, never even mind that some people just do more than others and thus deserve to get rich. Luck and achievement accounts for wealth but in any case, it isn’t wealth that’s available for others, morally, and it shouldn’t be legally, to dispose of.
I am a guy who got middle class status in my late fifties, after coming to America as a poor slob. But it disgusts me to hear all this rich bashing, as if my desire for greater riches entitled me to take from those who are better off than I am. And it is sad that a prominent professor like you, from Princeton -- who isn’t about to take a job at some third rate college because, well, those profs there ought to share your lucrative and prestigious job (unless you want to, in which case why don’t you switch with me, who teaches at Chapman University) -- takes part in all this class war mongering, a la that great lover (and producer) of the poor, Karl Marx!
Sincerely, Tibor R. Machan
