Bottom line: "Soak the rich!" Less facetiously, as I understand it - flimsy grasp at best, I admit - the English leaned hard on their titled class and the continental nations of Northern Europe in effect traded caps on income for very broadly defined and financed social benefits.
We, in contrast, pander to corporate profits, get the political vapors when the current crop of robber barons are found out, soak the middle class that can't dodge pro forma taxation, blame the disadvantaged for their economic plight and pay heavily for reactive and ultimately ineffective enforcement strategies when the lower classes get bumptious. But I digress - please only apply this paradigm to Minneapolis as appropriate to the list's raison d'etre and be gentle with my sense of humor. Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten, in the Lyndale Neighborhood _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
