Internal Revenue Service data indicate that the top 1% of taxpayers pay about 45% of all income taxes in the United States. The same data indicate that 49% of the U.S. population contributes absolutely nothing.

Yet we still hear the nonsensical “Tax the rich!” mantra on infinite replay (yawn).

It started with Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto in 1848. Marx – the quintessential socialist who mooched off others all his life — thought that confiscating the earnings of productive people would be fun. Socialist movements always start with “Tax the rich!” and always end in economic ruin. It’s a perfect record.

The Socialist Left’s perverted attitude toward earned profit is best expressed in the story about two farmers in socialist Russia. Farmer A worked hard and milked two cows, while Farmer B only milked one cow. Farmer B complained that Farmer A made more profit. In the name of equity, the government killed one of Farmer A’s two cows and sent him to the GULAG. Then Farmer A’s other cow died from neglect and there was only one-third as much milk for the population (do the math). That’s socialism.

In a free market, profit can only be earned if the producer creates a product or service that others are willing to pay for – a better mousetrap. “Tax the rich!” will always hurt society by punishing those who produce the most value for society.

Alternatively, if a profit comes by way of mandates or subsidies (like wind, solar or ethanol mandates) then the profit is akin to government-sponsored extortion. Bloated and unaccountable government bureaucracies are also extortion rackets.

Economists have a term called the Money Multiplier that estimates the economic impact of a dollar spent. The typical Multiplier for the private sector is about three times greater than a $1 spent in the government sector. Hence, giving money to the government — beyond what is needed for fundamental needs (law enforcement, defense, etc.) is economic malpractice.

So, why does the Left believe that society is better-off when the government seizes a productive person’s profits rather than allowing that person to invest those profits in a new enterprise that creates new value? Are we really better-off when the government wastes our resources on bloated bureaucracies — paying people to produce nothing? Are we better-off when our government underwrites student loans for useless degrees at over-priced colleges, and then tries to force working taxpayers foot the bill (Joe Biden)?

Are we better-off when the government subsidizes economic insanity like the Green New Deal (NY CLCPA), which wastes both human and natural resources while wrecking the planet? Are we better-off when the government flooded the U.S. with low-skilled illegal immigrants for whom we must provide free healthcare and housing?

Are we better-off when 49% of the population contributes nothing? Are we better-off driving up our Trade Deficit buying low-skilled production goods from China while tens of millions of Americans live on public assistance from the welfare kleptocracy with no incentive to work?

Even worse: our government prints money to pay for the insanity. Inflation always follows when too many dollars are chasing too few goods (people not working). Inflation is always a tax on the savings of working people.

Are we better-off paying over $1 trillion annually to wealthy Wall Street bankers to pay the interest on the $38 Trillion national debt?

Big spending is why the U.S. suffered over 21% inflation during the Biden years, and the resulting unaffordability cannot be undone without ending welfare and requiring work.

Inflation is now below 3% annually, but we still waste prodigious sums on counter-productive social policies, Green Energy unicorns, and leviathan bureaucracies.

Instead of taxing the rich, we should tax the Left.

Why should we continue to punish those who create the most value for society? Why punish the person who invented the better mousetrap? The socialist Left is demanding ever more spending to support their pet projects. Let them pay for their own unicorns.

There are plenty of Leftist millionaires and billionaires that we can tax. People like George Soros, Michael Krieger, Susan Pritzger, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, etc. have trillions of dollars to pay for their far-Left causes. According to the “Tax-the-rich” crowd, those people are not paying their fair share anyway.

Perhaps we could start a socialist “Go Fund Me” so all Leftists can prove how serious they are about their big-government socialist causes. They could donate their ill-gotten wealth (per Marx) to pay for healthcare for illegal aliens, more generous EBT for welfare recipients, transgender surgeries, and all kinds of goodies the Left wants to force working taxpayers to provide.

Then we can create a public database so all those Leftists can advertise exactly what they sacrificed for the common good. Or not.

Tax the Left. Their socialist ideology is responsible for the “Affordability Crisis.”

Scott Axelson is a Jamestown resident and Michael Dee is from Silver Creek.