The Phony Budget Crisis: Forget Austerity, Tax the Rich

"But that’s just the beginning. Wealthy individuals are nothing next to America’s money-sucking corporations", Ted Rall wrote about a wealth tax on individuals.

Now, why would a lefty stop there when complaining about corporations? It's no secret that everyone of Rall's malevolent ilk thinks that corporatist capitalism is an organized crime racket that's sponsored and subsidized by government. In fact, their belief is correct, even if the motivation and reasoning that got them to the conclusion are faulty. So does Ted Rall call for abolition of the racket and, in the meantime, reduction of dependency upon it? Well, no. So, what Rall really means when he hollers for taxing the rich and their corporate businesses is just this:

"I, Ted Rall, want my cut of the fruits of crime that is organized by government."

The fact that Ted is a bleeding hearted do-gooder, a Robin Hoodlum, who would redistribute the loot to alleged victims can be no objection here. Rall wants his cut of the action, and that's that. Yet he has a PR problem.

Solution? Appoint government as his favorite charitable foundation, both to collect from the donors and to pay the hungry tapeworms. Then, to make a living from it, publish a lot of fluff in which he calls for perpetuation and extension of the clever racket.

Somehow, this has managed to remind me of Walter Block's recent rationalization of Ayn Rand's taxfeeding parasitism. Note Walter's claim that "of course, she never came within a million miles of doing any such thing" as "ever contribut[ing] money to the semi-socialist-fascist government". So Ayn Rand, alleged victim of moochers and looters, never paid taxes yet availed herself of wealth redistributed by moochers and looters.

Ted Rall and Ayn Rand make for strange bedfellows, yet bedfellows they are nonetheless.