TV Show host Rick Steves: Sequester People like Me, Not Struggling Americans

In my travels, I find myself noticing the relative gap between rich and poor in various societies. The measure of a healthy society is indicated, in part, by the income gap between the top and the bottom quintile (20 percent of society). All my life, I've considered a very wide gap to be the mark of less successful, banana republic-type societies. But in the last generation, the USA has become like a banana republic itself in its creation of a tiny economic elite and a vast swath of its population mired in structural poverty.

Sure, I am one of the elites — a hardworking business owner who creates jobs. And I see the way the status quo (which protects the obscene wealth of the top one percent) is demoralizing and demeaning our society. That's why I'm a member of a group of wealthy people advocating for more progressive taxation so that we can build a society with a healthier balance.

I know the notion of "job creators" like me (I employ over a hundred people directly, and many more indirectly) advocating for higher taxes on the wealthy infuriates many Americans — especially those who have dropped out of what was once a healthy middle class. Part of our Cold War/Red Scare heritage is that we can't even address class issues as problems. But I think doing so is patriotic.