Taxing the poor to benefit the rich

I always hear calls to increase taxes presented as a simple, morally-neutral transfer of money from the rich to the poor. When there are cuts to things like food stamps, public housing or welfare my friends on the left like the juxtapose them with suggestions to tax the rich more.

Morally, we are asked, what's wrong with taking money from the rich to help the poor?

Except, of course, it doesn't really work that way. A lot of the money goes to the usual suspects, agricultural subsidies and other forms of corporate welfare, boondoggles like the Big Dig and bridges to nowhere, frivolous historical and cultural district grants that are treated as free money, stadiums for private sports teams and the occasional war.

There's also programs that give designer goodies to people like you and me, like the Beaon Food Forest in Seattle. Sometimes, tax money goes to projects for people who are doing OK or are even rich.




I thought Social Security set the bar with it's taking of money out of the pocket of poor teens working at a supermarket and giving those same dollars to rich retired doctors living in Florida, but this Bikes-for-Whites program really takes the cake.

I'd be a lot more willing to tolerate tax increases if I thought they were going to go to help the poor or even pay off the deficit. In reality, those new tax dollars will end up in the pockets of the politically powerful, or worse, be treated as free money for every half-baked grant writer to snatch away.