Soak The Rich (UPDATE)

I was reading this post by Yglesias and I got thinking about all the fake outrage on the right over things like sex and gays and Pres. Obama instituting Sharia Law from his personal mosque at ground zero. You know who the real culprit behind our cultural malaise is?

Paris Hilton's Dad, who happens to be filthy rich.

If ever there were a poster child for the dangers inherent in too much wealth, Paris Hilton is it. She knows nothing, contributes nothing, yet we are inundated with images of her, clothed and otherwise. We are updated with her goings-on, flitting hither and yon with this young man and that, getting arrested in South Africa for marijuana possession, Las Vegas for cocaine possession.

Now there are wealthy people who also have some moral sense concerning their wealth. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, both among the wealthiest individuals in the world, are actually doing good stuff with all that cash. Plus, you don't hear them complaining that a return to Clinton-era tax levels are going to impoverish them. Or others like them, for that matter.

For the most part, however, our society and culture are being undermined not by undocumented immigrants, or gays and lesbians, or Muslims. It is rich white folk, who have no responsibility, no sense of obligation to the world outside themselves, and whose only goal is the creation of even more wealth by any means necessary. It is not poor who feel entitled to handouts from the government, but rich white folk who feel entitled to stay rich, and even get richer, without anyone ever questioning how that happens, or if the cost to the rest of us is worth their indulgence by the rest of us.

Even more than allowing the marginal tax rates to return to Clinton-era levels, I would return them to their far-more-progressive, pre-Reagan era levels, when the wealthiest paid as much as 70% of their income in taxes. Them that has, should pay up, after all. Why should the rest of us reward these folks, allowing them to have children who will grow up and flood our senses with endless images of their goings-on, their sexual escapades, and have to listen to their insistence they should be indulged simply because they are who they are?

So, yeah, basically, I think higher taxes, in particular for people like Paris Hilton's Dad, are nothing but a plus.

UPDATE: I hadn't even seen this op-ed piece by Paul Krugman, but it fits in well.