By Gary Pichon of Marble Hill 

The national Democrats want to tax the wealthy and give the money to the poor.  “From those who have to those who have not.”  That seems to me to be communism.

They do have a point about the concentration of wealth.  When peace exists for a long time, then money seems to concentrate in the hands of a few.  If the Democrats were serious about trying to level the field a little,  they would introduce bills that might have a chance to help even things out without removing all the incentives to make a fortune.

Here are some half baked ideas that they might propose if they had half a brain.

1.   All publicly traded and privately held companies shall have at least two members of the board of directors selected by those working for the company from all the employees.

2.  One half of all stock options shall be distributed among the non-executive employees of the company based upon their average earnings.

3.   All executive bonuses paid shall be held in escrow for three years  which shall be reduced by the same percentage of the general stock price should it fall.

4.  In order for a takeover of a company, the board of directors shall have to approve by a 2/3 majority vote and the employees must approve by a simple majority.

5.  No one employed by the company shall earn more than 300 times than the lowest-paid employee.  (300 x $30,000=$9,000,000 which should be enough to keep house)

6.  No one in sports or in entertainment shall earn more than 300 times the lowest-paid employee in that organization.

7.  No one in any government position may be paid more than 50 times the minimum annual wage paid to a full-time government employee.

8.   No individual shall serve on more than one board of directors.

9.  50% of all executive expense account expenditures shall be counted as individual income.

See, without raising taxes you could nudge money from the top to the bottom.  All the Democrats can say is “raise taxes.” 

Personally I like relatively free capital markets and favor graduated taxes based upon income but with rates that are low.  Everybody should pay some tax even if it is a dollar. No person should be given anything by a government unless they work or have worked. 

Teaching people stuff is “free” is stupid. Really high wealth taxes and income taxes, which the Democrats seem to favor, will kill this economy.  Cuba and what was the Soviet Union come to mind.