Wednesday digest

- Over four in five respondents to a recent Canadian survey seem to think that "the rich" should shoulder more of the tax burden, but this little story below demonstrates why envy of the wealthy and taking punitive action is, in the long run, destructive to everyone:

Sometimes politicians, journalists and others exclaim; "It's just a tax cut for the rich" and it is just accepted to be fact. But what does that really mean?

Just in case you are not completely clear on this issue, I hope the following will help. Please read it carefully. Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day the owner threw them a curve.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." Dinner for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers?

How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?'" They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meal.

So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man.

He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two. The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night, the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him.

But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.

They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works.

The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

- I like Chris Rock and always have, ever since he turned in a scorching 45-minute set live on campus during my frosh week back in September 1993 and promptly caused all of the angry feminists on student council to register their offense at his observations about relationships. However, I gotta register my discontent with him on this. He says:

“Maybe Barack will win, but I probably won’t see a black president. There’s real equality when you don’t notice [race], you don’t even talk about it. I probably won’t live to see that.”

Chris Rock could arguably be more responsible than any entertainer going for promoting racial differences. In fact, he's built his whole career on commenting on them, and so isn't it a little rich for him to lament the fact that (elite) culture in America is still race-obsessed almost 50 years after the Civil Rights Act?

- I find the picture which accompanies this article about Michaelle Jean, Canada's Governor General, taken in Afghanistan on International Women's Day last week to be absolutely heartbreaking, but thankfully, there is a slim glimmer of hope thanks to the courage of some Muslim women as recognized by Condoleeza Rice last week.