So says Newark mayor Cory Booker.

Well, I agree. Our nation was built on equal opportunity (at least on paper), and that means equal responsibility. There’s a lot being tossed around these days about “forced redistribution of wealth,” and that’s an idea I can’t get behind. At the same time, I can’t deal with the concept of poor folk shouldering the lion’s share of our nation’s tax burden while massive corporations and the super-rich use tax shelters and loopholes to avoid paying effective tax rates at parity with the poor and (suffering!) middle-class.

Even a 3% gap in tax burden is unacceptable, given the top-heavy nature of the wealth pyramid. I suspect that the graph only depicts the tip of the iceberg as well, and doesn’t address corporations at all.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints instituted the Law of Tithing in 1838 by revelation. However, even as late as 17 May 1899, members of that faith were observing the commandment sporadically or partially, and the Church was deeply in debt after resolving its difficulties with the government. On the latter date, President Lorenzo Snow announced to the Church at a conference in St. George, “The word of the Lord is: The time has now come for every Latter-day Saint … to do the will of the Lord and to pay his tithing in full. That is the word of the Lord to you, and it will be the word of the Lord to every settlement throughout the land of Zion”. From that day to this, worthy Mormons pay 10% of their increase to support the work of the Church. What their “increase” is (gross income, net income, 100 eggs, whatever) is left up to the conscience of the individual member, but the point is: If you make a dollar, you pay 10¢. If you make seven jillionteen dollars, you divide that by ten, and that’s your tithing. There are no deductions, no loopholes, nothing. Ten percent.

We need a similar system when it comes to income taxes. There are many who will claim that a flat tax is regressive and unduly burdens those of lesser means, but I don’t buy it. Each of us has the obligation to pay our fair share, and a flat tax system with equal sharing of the burden would result in far less resentment than a system where the poor are squeezed for every last dime and those who can afford high-priced lawyers, corporations included, pay little, or in some cases nothing.

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Compiled by CTJ (Citizens for Tax Justice); found here.

This level of disparity is mind-boggling, and even moreso that it continues to be permitted. Demanding that corporations and the wealthy pay a fair share of taxes is not “forced redistribution” of wealth – it’s just plain old human decency and common sense.

As I’ve said elsewhere, “trickle down” economics is insulting even at the semantic level. If our nation is going to regain any sense of the greatness it once had, and the equality of opportunity implied in “lifting a lamp beside the golden door,” the trickle must of necessity become a torrent.

Sadly, the situation is not new – as the early 20th-century cartoon above shows, the wealthy have in effect been raping the vast majority of our population for centuries, and we deserve better.

Forced redistribution of wealth basically means, ‘I don’t have to do anything, I don’t have to be anything, I’m a human being. Now gimme half of what you’ve got.” That’s socialism at its worst, and it’s not what I’m advocating in the slightest. People prosper for all sorts of reasons. Some were born into wealth, others started businesses on a shoestring and built empires. But it’s important to remember that even the CEO’s who built their businesses didn’t do it alone: US Humorist Don Marquis (Archy and Mehitabel) once said,”When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: ‘Whose?'”

Not all of us are cut out to build global business networks worth billions. Those who do, by dint of honest work and business savvy, should be entitled to enjoy the fruits of their labors. But the person who makes money honestly and holds on to it by dint of legal jiggery-pokery is no better than the thief who dips into the till – he or she is ripping off the entire nation, and it’s just plain not right.

I’m not an economist, but it would seem to me that a flat tax, with deductions for interest paid on a primary residence and charitable contributions, would be the fairest way to go. If you make a little, you pay a little. If you make a lot, you pay a lot. Eliminating all the loopholes and special circumstances would go a long way to establishing tax equity in our nation, and might just even be part of a solution for returning to the concept of a balanced budget, which at the moment looks as substantial as an opium dream. Such a plan might put a bunch of lawyers out of work, but you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

The Old Wolf has spoken.