We already tried monarchy

Tom Perkins thinks votes should be proportional to taxes paid. (As if they weren’t already, to some degree!)

PerkinsHenryVIIIImages: CNN & The London Dungeon

You don’t have to look very far in history to find a system in which political power and ownership of assets were embodied in the same few people. We called its advocates “monarchists,” and there were remedies for that.

tar-and-featherThe founding fathers were rightfully aware of the need to prevent runaway positive feedback of wealth and power. Perkins evidently fears runaway negative feedback:

“The fear is wealth tax, higher taxes, higher death taxes — just more taxes until there is no more 1%. And that that will creep down to the 5% and then the 10%,” he said.

This is ignores conservation laws. If punitive taxation could really bring the wealth of the 1% down, where would all that money, and its underlying assets, actually go? And how can this be a real concern, when in fact incomes at the top are dramatically increasing by any measure?

So, Perkins is,

  • not a student of history
  • not a fan of democracy
  • not a keen observer of current trends
  • bad at economics

— or —

  • willing to fib about it all for personal gain

and we should give him a million votes?

Update: I’ve played this game before.