“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

It’s time someone said what many of us believe but are afraid to say.

At least publicly.

So I’ll say it and damn the consequences.

If you really want to see a better world, end poverty, stop war, save the environment, improve the lives of seniors, lower the infant mortality rate, distribute wealth more fairly, slow climate change, reduce homelessness, lower drug addiction, save the oceans, reduce racism and increase respect for all cultures and ethnicities and make Planet Earth a better place for everyone including all living creatures and there’s an obvious way to do it.

Not a perfect way, but a hell of a lot better than we’re doing now which is no less than God-awful and getting worse with each passing, smoke-filled day.

Tax the rich!

There, I’ve said it and I’m not going to take it back no matter how much opprobrium is thrown my way. Allow me to state my case.

In a parable from the Bible, the rich man’s sin was not that he was rich but that he refused to care for a person in need. In other words, it’s not money itself that’s being condemned but the love of money which is seen as greed and avarice. In the scriptures, Lazarus, starving and covered with sores, is invited to the rich man’s table but is only allowed to eat the crumbs that fall to the rich man’s floor. I think we all would agree that’s not nice. In fact, most people would regard such behaviour as mean, greedy and downright immoral.

Yet we see and hear about such behaviour daily in the news. And precious few of us do a damn thing about it. Why?

Is it because we’re a society so out of touch with the wealth around us that we don’t even see it anymore? Take a walk around the residential streets of Cranbrook or Kimberley. A $300,000 house is now a shack. I should know. I live in one. And look at the “toys” in the yard. Quads, Ski-doos, SUV’s bigger than a moose for pulling fifth-wheelers and motor homes that would be considered palaces in the Third World.

And I haven’t even mentioned the 72-inch flat-screen TVs inside the houses to go with the kids’ TV’s and the one in the bedroom for Mom and Dad and the seldom-used party boat parked outside on the manicured lawn.

Thorstein Veblen, considered one of the greatest economists of all time, coined the famous expression “conspicuous consumption” in which he claimed the rich don’t pursue wealth out of any sense of need but because they zealously desire “recognition by others.” Do Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates need any more money?

The question, of course, is rhetorical. But all four crave recognition. They can’t get enough of it. So, if they’re not being motivated by need there can be only one thing driving them.

Greed, pure and simple. This isn’t rocket science.

Granted they all donate to their favourite charitable foundations, Gates more than the others. But what if there was an international agency on our besotted planet, which had the world-wide power to impose its will on every country on Earth.

Such an agency could impose a one percent or less wealth tax on every individual, company or organization making more than $100,000, the cost of throwing a small dinner party for the four gazillionaires mentioned before. Think of the obscene “wages” being paid to entertainers and sports superstars, Hundreds of millions for shooting a puck or throwing a ball. I’m not a mathematician but I think a wealth tax would bring in billions.

A million dollars isn’t that much anymore, but a billion is still a considerable amount. It could provide a lot of shelter for the homeless and support the millions of seniors living in poverty. It could build more hospitals and pay for additional nurses and doctors to work them.

It could provide additional funding for cancer research, children’s diseases. climate change, schools – anything you can think of as well as improving the lot of humankind and cleaning up the environment.

So why aren’t we doing it? Do we prefer the status quo? Do we lack a social conscience? Or are we too indifferent to get involved?

You tell me.

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist who thinks we can do better.

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