In response to fears of globalization and rising inequality, the public in all the rich countries surveyed -- the U.S., Germany, U.K., France, Italy and Spain -- want their governments to increase taxation on those with the highest incomes. In European countries, a large majority want governments to go further and to impose pay caps on the heads of companies.For a citizen of the United States such as myself, who has watched Republican presidential candidates campaign, mostly successfully, on the holy writ of tax-cuts-for-the-rich since 1980, these poll results take on a dreamlike quality. What alternate reality is this, where the rhetoric of a quarter century is suddenly turned on its head? As recently as just a few years ago, if you tried to suggest that government should consider raising taxes on the wealthy, the notion was immediately dismissed as a throwback to the "failed redistributive policies" of the past. But now it's all the rage. Is this the pendulum swing that liberals have been waiting for since the Reagan Revolution?
It is beyond ironic that the richest countries of the world are the ones now complaining about globalization the most. And it is especially interesting in the context of the United States, where Democratic candidates have raised 100 more million dollars in campaign contributions than Republicans, according to the Wall Street Journal, while pushing steadily harder on so-called "economic populism." When tax-the-rich becomes an effective money-raising technique, the pendulum isn't just swinging, it's turning into a wrecking ball.
-- Andrew Leonard
