If you’re looking for a good example of the impact of class envy, look no further than Michael Kinsley’s latest TIME column.
In making his case that private-equity billionaires are “pigs” because they’re fighting proposals to boost their tax rates from 15 percent to 35 percent, Kinsley says:
Tax breaks aren’t free. Lower taxes on Stephen Schwarzman mean either higher taxes on somebody else or a bigger national debt.
There’s actually another option. Lower taxes on Schwarzman could also mean less money for the federal government to waste on items it has no business funding.
What happens if the government refuses to confiscate the extra portion of Schwarzman’s income (or capital gain)? Unless he sticks a bunch of dollar bills in his mattress, he will: spend some money, which helps other people get money that they can spend, which helps another set of people get money and so on; and invest some money, which offers another set of people access to the capital that generates more money.
