[PEN-L:33252] Re: taxation question

[joanna bujes <joanna.bujes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> in a separate message, Ellen
> writes:> 
> What people deserve is exactly the issue the right wing
> will 
> raise -- the rich deserve their luxuries and the poor have
> no 
> right to take what others have earned fairly (I guess
> they'll 
> want to leave Ken Lay out if it). 

Well, the question of how the rich "earn" is thorny enough.
Does the CEO of Sun really work 100 times or 500 times harder than I do?

Moreover, do the children, grandchildren, etc. of these same
"earners" "deserve" to walk into the privileges they
get? Is Henry Ford V, 1000 times harder working than I am? 

>  How do supporters of
> a progressive tax respond unless they are willing to say the
> existing distribution of income is fundamentally unjust?
> < 

why not say that? It is unjust.


> how about the fact that those
> with lots of wealth benefit most from the government's activities, which
> mostly involve the protection of established property rights?

Yeah, not to mention the fact that they hire those politicians in the
first place.

Joanna