Small tax hike on top earners would be step in right direction

The current GOP leadership and its colleagues in the Minnesota House and Senate are the unfortunate victims of the Taxpayer's League and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty's "no new taxes, ever" pledge. I suspect many Republican legislators know that the best thing for Minnesota right now is to ask everyone to pay their fair share -- and that means a small tax increase for the top 2 percent of Minnesota's high-income households.

When I hear the conservative mantra that we are unfairly "taking from the rich," I want to remind them that in any legitimate democracy we all benefit from and "take" from each other, and that the rich do take from the middle class and the poor.

The amazing public systems in this country -- physical infrastructure, patents and trademark protection, public schools, libraries and hospitals -- are something we built together, as citizens. The wealthy have not only benefited enormously from these investments we all helped build, but over the past 30 years, they have further used their wealth to enact tax policy to benefit themselves disproportionately to the rest of the population.

Corporations, which are also doing enormously well, have slowly but steadily eroded the power of workers and shifted a disproportionate share of the country's economic growth to the top. Wages and household income for the middle class and the poor are either flat or down over the past 30 years. We all know what's happened at the top -- astronomical increases in income and wealth. This is not the "invisible hand" of the market. This is cronyism in the boardrooms of America and the power of money to write the rules.

The economy is a measure of how well we are doing. It exists to serve "we the people," and to sustain a vibrant, living planet. We somehow have turned it all backwards, and now worship and worry about the economy: "Oh, no, we can't raise taxes -- it will hurt the economy."

The economy is the metaphor we use to describe how we are all doing on the journey through life. Right now it's real people who are hurting because those we have entrusted to drive the bus, to run the economy, are either driving drunk or taking us on a wild ride that is not going to end well.

When legislators say that it's "unfair" to take money from those who have "earned it," they are ignoring the overwhelming evidence of the past 30 years. The wealthy have unfairly rigged the system and lined their own pockets with money taken from the wages of the bottom 90 percent.

I am not suggesting we shouldn't have some differences in economic outcomes -- we want people to succeed and do well. But we need to deal with the systemic inequalities so that "we the people" can get back to living our lives and not worrying every night if we can pay the bills tomorrow.

Around the country, over 150 patriotic millionaires have come together to tell Congress to raise their taxes. Many wealthy business people in this state are well aware of the inequities in the system and are speaking out about their willingness to be taxed fairly. There are many good and thoughtful people running our companies. All of us, though, to some degree, have become blinded by the power of what we call the free market.

Our economy exists to serve us. Good business and economic policy will allow it to work for all of us again. It's time we heard these voices more clearly and pushed the Legislature to act on their wisdom. With state government shut down, real people are being hurt.

---- Ann Manning is outreach director for Wealth for the Common Good, which describes itself as "a network of business leaders, high-income households and partners working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation." She is also a former CPA with Coopers & Lybrand and was director of corporate planning for Medtronic.

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