You Shall Not Covet Your Neighbor’s House

Seriously, I have no desire to wade into political waters here. The opinion I’m expressing here is manifestly not political, though it may sound so at first.

I’m mulling a piece of mail I just got from the Illinois Secretary of State that seeks to explain why some people want us to vote to change the Illinois Constitution so we can have a graduated income tax like the other kids have. Fine. If you want to debate that on the merits, have at it.

But what bothers me about it—what has always bothered me in this debate—is that a big part of the rationale expressly offered for doing so is the claim that “millionaires and billionaires” aren’t paying their fair share. The question of how, and whether, and how much, to tax people isn’t what concerns me. That would be a political debate worthy of having, but not here, not now.

What does concern me, rather, is this screed about fair share, and, more to the point, the palpable scoff against people who are rich. Actually what would be fair, in the strictest sense, is if everyone paid the same percentage. If, say the tax were 5% of your income, and you made $50,000 a year, then you’d be paying $2,500 in taxes. Someone making $1,000,000 a year would be paying $50,000 a year. Strictly speaking, that’s fair. A rich person is paying a lot more in taxes, because he makes a lot more money. A graduated tax is not really fair, although certainly there’s a legitimate argument to be made about having one anyway. Fine.

What I find morally repulsive in the debate is the attempt made to get us to put up our noses against the rich, for the simple reason that they are rich. I think that’s pretty much in the definition of sin against the Ninth Commandment. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. This mean that we should fear and love God that we may not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, or get it in a way which only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it. And it doesn’t matter how much money he makes, or how much property he has. Why, after all, would I ever covet my neighbor’s house if it’s a little leaky shack? Coveting rears its head against my neighbor when his house is a mansion.

Without a doubt, your government needs some of your money to function. Should it take an additional share from people who are rich? Maybe. But how can we say it’s simply because they are too rich anyway? or because their “fair share” means that they should be soaked, not we? or because nobody should be so rich. This is nothing other than contempt for their wealth. Millionaires and billionaires, people sniff. Such scorn is not right. We should, rather, rejoice when we see our neighbor prosper, as we have learned to do when we were in catechism class.

So if you want to have a political debate about a graduated income tax, go for it. But such a debate ought not include contempt for my neighbor, whoever he is.