You might have thought that Mike Bloomberg—with his trans fat and smokes snatching—was the epitome of nanny staters. But the Big Apple mayor's got nothing on another New Yorker--Nicholas Kristof.
In his New York Times column of today, Equality, A True Soul Food, Kristof preaches the urgent need for income redistribution as a means of . . . improving our souls.
According to Kristof, "the toll of our stunning inequality is not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul." And hey: what says soul improvement more than . . . raising taxes?!
More excerpts and analysis after the break.
Kristof's jumping off point is a book by two British professors who assert that in societies with large income equality, those at the bottom of the ladder "suffer from a range of pathologies."
Kristof grudgingly admits: "Granted, humans are not all equal in ability: There will always be some who are more wealthy — and others who constitute the bottom."
But he goes on to argue that America's inequality doesn't need to be so "harsh, oppressive and polarized." Ominously, he also cites those profs as saying that "even small differences seem to make an important difference." So in nirvana according to Nicholas, the government-imposed leveling would be fierce. Kristof also approvingly cites this condescending message from the profs : "it is not just the poor who benefit from the social cohesion that comes with equality, but the entire society." See, you rich folks are just too dumb to realize you'd be happier if you just let the government take more of what you earn.
Kristof concludes with his pitch for redistribution: "So as we debate national policy in 2011 — from the estate tax to unemployment insurance to early childhood education — let’s push to reduce the stunning levels of inequality in America today."
Translation: higher taxes, more welfare, bigger bucks for teachers unions. Can't you just feel your soul lifting?
