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In his 1776 treatise on Capitalism, which is studied in classrooms across America and serves as one of the foundations upon which we modeled our free market system, Adam Smith wrote:

“The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. . . . The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. . . . It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”

The rich paying more according to the fact that they can, for the benefit of the poor and middle class, is 100% necessary to maintain our middle class, the life-blood of any healthy capitalist economy.

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