Opinion: In today’s pages: Taxing the rich, mapping the Muslims, saving the bay
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Columnist Jonah Goldberg insists that rich people aren’t rich enough for all the taxes Democrats would have them pay:
What does it do to a democracy when people see government as something only other people should pay for? Let’s take seriously for a moment the notion that rich people are an inexhaustible army of Energizer bunnies that just keep going and going, no matter what taxes you throw in their path. You can see where Democrats get this idea, after all. The top 1% of wage earners already provide nearly 40% of federal income tax revenues. And the bottom half of taxpayers contribute only about 3%. Taxes are a necessary evil. But their silver lining is that they foster a sense of accountability and reciprocity between the taxpayer and the tax collector. Indeed, democracy is usually born from this relationship.
Eric J. Weiner offers a history of the latest financial bubble. Michael Rowan and Douglas Schoen ask if Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will slip the world into a recession if his countrymen grant him the power to restrict oil production. Blue Frontier Campaign president David Helvarg says the bay Otis Redding made famous is now desperately polluted after a fuel spill.
The editorial board says the LAPD’s Muslim mapping plan sounds less like the modern, trustworthy force and more like the LAPD of old. The board also says Bush’s ‘time bomb’ defense of practices like waterboarding doesn’t make sense. Finally, the board argues that, after easing crack sentencing disparity on Nov. 1, Congress should finish what it started.
Readers react to the LAPD mapping plan. L.A.’s Margaret Manning asks, ‘Until the LAPD eliminates the homicides, burglaries, rapes and other crimes actually within its jurisdiction, shouldn’t it leave what sounds suspiciously like intelligence gathering and social work to others?’