•August 21, 2019•
By Jim Nowlan
Capital News Service
Gov. J. B. Pritzker has proposed a graduated income tax for Illinois (higher rates for higher incomes), which prompts these fundamental questions: How should society allocate wealth? How should government redistribute it? And, of course, should we vote for or against the graduated tax at the 2020 election? (Whew, talk about big topics for 800 words!)
Life is, at the core, about the struggle for wealth and power. I tell my students that political science is the study of who gets what, why, and how?
Kings and rulers used to allocate wealth by taking as much of it as they could for themselves without fomenting peasant revolts. Uprisings in the medieval centuries by charismatic peasant leaders like Wat Tyler in England usually ended with guys like Wat and his followers dangling from gibbets. Those with the wealth (known otherwise as power) generally prevailed.
Plagues in the same period wiped big chunks of the peasantry off the countryside, which increased demand for the remaining workers — and thus wages. So, the market plays a role, though imperfectly.
Enlightenment thinkers of the 17th Century proposed that people other than royalty should have a say in budgeting and taxation; the idea took hold in England and here. Read More
