Under-Taxing the Rich Is Uncivilized

Under-Taxing the Rich Is Uncivilized

Please don’t fret about paying taxes. They’re your most productive investment. As Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. noted more than a century ago, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” Tax cuts may bring some temporary...
Under-Taxing the Rich Is Uncivilized

How Should We Confront the Corporate Greed Grab?

In America today, The New York Times reports, we’re living in “a golden age” — for corporate profits. These earnings have been soaring at a 20 percent annual clip. In fact, to find a year when corporations were grabbing as great a share of...
A Triumph of Sewage and Stench

A Triumph of Sewage and Stench

Just over a year ago, the Costa Concordia, a Carnival Cruise ocean liner, ran aground on an Italian reef. Thirty-two died. “We expect to fully recover from the ship incident,” the subsequent Carnival annual report told shareholders. Earlier this month,...
The Ever-So-Brief Success of the Income Tax

The Ever-So-Brief Success of the Income Tax

The modern federal income tax turns 100 this year, and historians are already holding special events to commemorate the anniversary. But if we really want to understand just what the federal income tax has accomplished — and failed to accomplish — over the last 100...