Myron Magnet of the Manhattan Institute has a razor-sharp piece in City Journal on the blatherings of Democratic candidate Bill de Blasio, who says that New York is divided between the rich and the poor. Magnet responds that the real divide is between those who work to produce goods and services and are taxed, and those people who consume the taxes paid by producers.
That is not only true in New York. It’s true throughout the world. The tax consumers have created a great mythology to defend their predations against the productive sector. Last year, Barack Obama relied on it in his famous “you didn’t build that” line that was meant to appeal to the envy of his tax-consuming base.
