The Hysterical Hyperbole of The Globe's Neil Reynolds

The other day I wrote a post about the right-wing propaganda machine going into high gear as a result of the McGuinty compromise with the NDP that will result in a two-point increase in income tax for those making over $500,000 per year. Never one to miss a good rally, The Globe's Neil Reynolds has predictably joined what will soon doubtless be a juggernaut of publicly-expressed fear and outrage on the part of the 'beleaguered' wealthy.

Entitled Ontario’s taxing march to socialism, (evokes rather inflammatory imagery, doesn't it?) Reynold's article laments this 'consumption of wealth' implying that it will soon continue voraciously, resulting in a decline in everyone's savings. He predicts that nothing good can come from any move that seeks to redress inequality, dismissing it as simply a manifestation of 'hatred of the rich.'

The vacuous screed continues as he suggests the following: As a matter of statistical fact, high-income earners are poorer, in many cases, than average-income earners (with, say, $100,000 in taxable income). He ends it by conjuring up a parade of taxpayers, the least-burdened ones standing erect while the high earners carry Sisyphean boulders equal to 60 per cent of their incomes.

It is a burden, I suspect, that many in our society would be more than happy to bear.