Taxing NYC’s Rich Is a Poor Idea — and Could Bring the Big Apple into Financial Turmoil
Photo by kena betancur / AFP via Getty Images
‘Tax the rich!” That used to be the sort of sentiment you might expect from a student who’d just discovered a bit of Marxism and had yet to pay their first tax bill. But now New Yorkers are lucky enough to have a mayor who thinks this dumb slogan should be turned into policy.
Why is it dumb? For several reasons. Not the least of which is that it is so misleading. Saying “tax the rich” suggests that the rich aren’t already taxed. In fact the wealthiest people in this city already pay more than their fair share of taxes.
As Mayor Mamadani and his merry band of Marxists must know by now, the top 1% of New York taxpayers are responsible for almost half of the total tax revenues of this city. To put it another way, 99% of New Yorkers only cover 50% of the tax revenue of this city.
I suppose “tax the 99%” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. And it doesn’t play to that sweet cocktail of resentment and envy that always underlies the policies of the far left.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Douglas Murray is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor of City Journal.