Add billionaire Bill Gross, of Pimco, to the list of rich
men who want to raise taxes on the rich. The first five paragraphs of his August
newsletter are required reading for anybody who tries to delude themselves
that the present plutocracy is good for the country. Some excerpts:
Wealth has always gravitated towards those that take risk with other people’s
money but especially so when taxes are low. The rich are different –
but they are not necessarily society’s paragons. It is in fact society’s
wind and its current willingness to nurture the rich that fills their sails…
What pretense to assert, as did Kenneth Griffin, recipient last year of more
than $1 billion in compensation as manager of the Citadel Investment Group,
that "the (current) income distribution has to stand. If the tax became
too high, as a matter of principle I would not be working this hard."
Right. In the same breath he tells, Louis Uchitelle of The New York Times
that the get-rich crowd "soon discover that wealth is not a particularly
satisfying outcome."… Far better to admit, as has Warren Buffett, that
the tax rates of the wealthiest Americans average nearly 15% while those of
their salaried and therefore less incented assistants just outside their offices
are nearly twice that…
When the fruits of society’s labor become maldistributed, when the rich
get richer and the middle and lower classes struggle to keep their heads above
water as is clearly the case today, then the system ultimately breaks down;
boats do not rise equally with the tide; the center cannot hold…
Now is the time, long overdue in fact, to admit that for the rich, for the
mega-rich of this country, that enough is never enough, and it is therefore
incumbent upon government to rectify today’s imbalances. "The way
our society equalizes incomes" argues ex-American Airlines CEO Bob Crandall,
"is through much higher taxes than we have today. There is no other way."
Well said, Bob.
Gross also has some harsh words for those who would console themselves with
their "charitable donations" to cultural institutions:
When millions of people are dying from AIDS and malaria in Africa, it is
hard to justify the umpteenth society gala held for the benefit of a performing
arts center or an art museum. A thirty million dollar gift for a concert hall
is not philanthropy, it is a Napoleonic coronation.
I wonder what Tyler Cowen makes of that. (The multitalented
Cowen is the author
of Good and Plenty: The Creative Successes of American Arts Funding.)