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<DIV class=left><A href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><IMG
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<DIV class=timestamp>September 9, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">The Enlightened Rich Want to Be
Taxed</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
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<P>Some of the world’s wealthiest people are calling for higher taxes on the
rich. They seem to recognize that the burden of the economic downturn cannot be
borne entirely by the poor and middle class. </P>
<P>After the American billionaire investor Warren Buffett urged Congress last
month to <A title="Op-Ed article in The Times."
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html">raise
taxes</A> on millionaires, the call echoed across Europe. Sixteen of France’s
wealthiest individuals <A title="Times article."
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/business/global/as-austerity-bites-europes-rich-speak-up-to-be-taxed.html">urged
the government</A> to raise their taxes. The Italian Formula One magnate Luca di
Montezemolo publicly backed Mr. Buffett’s idea “for reasons of fairness and
solidarity.” About 50 of Germany’s richest people have been campaigning for a
higher top tax rate since 2009. </P>
<P>The suggestion is motivated, no doubt, by a sense of justice — that the very
rich, who have survived the financial crisis very well, should contribute more
to shrinking public coffers to reduce the spending cuts that would hurt the most
vulnerable. </P>
<P>But altruism does not fully explain why members of the global elite are
suddenly keen to prevent the deep budget reductions that will occur if
governments don’t raise more money. They are also moved by what some might call
enlightened self-interest. </P>
<P>Their walls may be high, but the wealthy live in the same world as the poor
and the middle class, who have been walloped by unemployment and cuts to social
welfare programs. When Mercedes-Benzes burned in Berlin and riots broke out on
London’s streets, the rich were watching on TV. </P>
<P>These nations risk more than social unrest. Austerity is already undermining
economic growth on both sides of the Atlantic. Slashing funds for education,
infrastructure and other vital needs will undercut future competitiveness and
endanger industrialized nations’ economic performance for generations. </P>
<P>Americans have been historically less inclined than Europeans to explosions
of social rage, despite suffering more poverty than most other wealthy
democracies. But with unemployment above 9 percent, rising poverty rates and
declining family incomes, the no-taxes, all-cuts agenda that has gripped
Congressional Republicans will fray our social fabric and squander human capital
here as well. </P>
<P>Mr. Buffett lives on the other end of the income spectrum, where 1 percent of
American taxpayers — about 750,000 families — pocket more than 20 percent of the
nation’s income. It is not surprising that the enlightened rich would think
paying higher taxes was a wise investment. The Republicans in Congress need to
be persuaded of that truth. </P><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
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<DIV style="RIGHT: -410px" id=upNext></FONT><FONT size=2
face=Verdana>_________________________________</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>