Time's Joe Klein Profiles Liberal Vineyard Owner Practically Pining for Days of Higher Taxes

By Ken Shepherd | September 27, 2010 | 4:29 PM EDT

With its dwindling readership, Time magazine is fast becoming a museum piece.

What better way is there to celebrate than for the publication to bring to its few readers' attention other strange curiosities?

Three weeks into his cross-country Election Road Trip, Joe Klein filed a Swampland blog post shortly after noon Eastern time today from Sebastopol, California, where he found a true rarity, a businessman practically pining for the days of heavier federal taxation (emphasis mine):

Barry [Sterling, founding partner of Iron Horse Vineyards] said he was deeply worried about the country. "I was born on the day of the 1929 stock market crash, so I've lived from the Great Depression to the Great Recession," he said, "and I must say I'm amazed by how little progress we've made. We stopped regulating. We dropped taxes to unsustainable levels. I spent a good part of my life in the 70% tax bracket. It didn't discourage me from working," he said, referring to the supply-side argument that lower tax rates spur enterprise. "It made me work harder. My father lived with 90% rates during World War II. I'm actually mystified by the greed now. I don't understand families like Koch brothers," he said referring to the Republican Tea Party bankrollers. "They have so much money. Why do they need more?"

No wonder Joe Klein found Barry to be delightful dinner company.

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