Say It Ain’t So, Tim

Mickey Kaus Columnist
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Tim Noah: You’re writing a whole big book on rising income inequality and you say all you want to do is “make the rich pay their fair share” and stop banks from causing another economic crisis? Really? You don’t want to reduce the massive economic inequality that will persist even after the rich and super-rich pay their “fair share”?  I understand why President Obama might want to water down the money-egalitarianism of the left into a simple “equal sacrifice” argument for higher upper tax brackets. But when even crusading opinion journalists who work for The New Republic have to deny their interest in actually equalizing incomes for its own sake then it kind of proves Andrew Kohut’s point that Americans reject that point of view, no? … P.S.:  I suspect polls will show Americans do care about social equality (that we are “equal in the eyes of each other,” as Ronald Reagan put it).  The popular desire for social equality is why Mitt Romney ate at McDonald’s today. In any case, I’ve argued, instead of focusing on rising income inequality (about which they can do little) liberals would be better advised to focus on ensuring social equality even in the face of disparate incomes. … I’m not saying that’s easy easy to do–even completely eliminating povery (J.Q. Wilson’s suggested focus) would not necessarily produce social equality between, say, the middle class and the ultra-rich. But it seems doable, and it’s something voters will want to do. … More tk! …

Mickey Kaus