Duh

A simple way to solve the debt crisis, or at least the Big Beautiful Bill crisis: Progressive taxation.

I remember when I was young that Nelson Rockefeller was described as being in the "90% tax bracket," meaning that he paid 90% of his incremental income in Federal tax. Without complaint. A rich guy, from a robber baron family.

It seems unthinkable now, but reducing taxes on the rich to near zero is what got us into this mess. There will be a lot of demagoguery to overcome, but it can be done. Just as the Republicans have their Grover Norquist Pledge, Democrats can have a pledge of their own. They could call it the AOC Pledge, or the Bernie Sanders Pledge. Or the Save our Civilization Pledge.

There are sufficient economic reasons for taxing the rich: saving the system from insolvency, increasing general welfare through redistribution of  income and wealth, reducing inefficiency, and making the system more stable. I have another argument. It is morally and ethically evil for anyone to have a desire for unlimited amounts of money in its various forms and  in material possessions. 

It is a perversion of human existence to want to have it all, knowing full-well that having it all means nothing for everyone else. Our current examples of endless greed - Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg -  are also examples of humans of the most repugnant kind, all more notable in their repulsivity than their vast fortunes. Who among us would want to be Donald Trump? Or Elon Musk? Or Bezos, with his grotesque wedding in Venice? 

For the economic theory inclined, I can do marginalism. In Neoclassical Economics lore there is such a thing as marginal utility. It is the incremental increase in usefulness of goods, services or money. The increase in happiness, or utility, of an additional dollar in income declines as the amount of dollars you already have increases. An additional dollar to the coffers of Jeff Bezos, for example, would be infinitesimally smaller than to a homeless person, axiomatically.

In our next civilization an upward limit on income and wealth will be necessary. That is, if we have a next civilization. We are so zealously pursuing our own extinction that the likelihood of any civilization at all is less by the day. 

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Here's a song. Barenaked Ladies. Barrett Strong. The Beatles. Pink Floyd. Warren Zevon. The Grateful Dead. Cream. AC/DC. Or, money doesn't talk, it swears. Peter Tosh. Lefty Frizzell. Willie Nelson. For mood enhancement, this.

Update, June 20: 72% of Americans Say the Rich 'Have Too Much' as GOP Pursues Another Handout for Billionaires