What history teaches us about raising taxes on the rich

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who represents Massachusetts and is 69 years old, probably followed rock and roll culture in the 1960s when the “British invasion” changed our music scene. It’s also when a lot of British rock groups including some of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones decided that England’s taxes took too much of their earnings — so they left the country.

They were, according to the phrase of that day and today, “tax exiles.”

Both Warren, who is running for president, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young freshman congresswoman who represents Queens and the Bronx, have proposed that Americans who happen to be very rich pay upward of 70 percent tax on their incomes.

Personally, I don’t care how high taxes are on the rich. It’s highly unlikely that I will ever have to worry about being among America’s wealthiest people.

So, on a personal level — being a selfish human being just like everyone else — I don’t really care if Warren and Ocasio-Cortez play Robin Hood and steal from the rich and pretend to give to the poor.

But remember this, someone is going to have to make up the difference if very wealthy people in the US become tax exiles. And those who will make up the shortfall will be us regular wage earners.

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