Ann Romney told a Fox News reporter that she didn’t consider herself wealthy because she is married to a man with a quarter of a billion dollars, give or take a few.
In a philosophic mood, she went on to say “how I measure riches is by the friends I have and the loved ones I have and the people that I care about in my life and that’s where my values are and that’s where my riches are.”
Mrs. Romney went on to explain that her multiple sclerosis made her aware of the suffering others endure who have chronic, incurable diseases and to feel compassion for them.
Most Americans without money worries would applaud Mrs. Romney’s values — but might amend her comment to observe that a family with a net worth of $250 million and an annual income of $21.7 million is very, very rich. Great wealth and virtuous personal values are not incompatible.
They might also reflect on this high profile example of the truism that money makes money. The Romney’s annual income comes without either of them lifting a finger. One of his ill-advised campaign comments was, “I understand, I’m unemployed, too.” He not only is earning $21.7 million a year from his investments, but is arguing for keeping in place the very low income tax rates on capital gains and dividends which allowed him to pay only 14 percent tax on that humongous income.
Romney, along with the other Republican candidates for the presidential nomination, also favor repealing the estate tax. The effect would be to make certain that very wealthy families such as his would grow wealthier and wealthier every year simply by watching their fortunes grow under the care of investment companies.
By following Republican tax policies, the United States would build for itself the equivalent of the landed royalties that sucked up so much of the wealth of England and the nations of Europe 400 years ago and sparked bloody revolutions.
The fundamental reason for the progressive income tax and a well-crafted estate tax is to help keep democracies democratic. And the Romneys of the U.S. should cherish that value, too.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
