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A warning about the ‘billionaire tax’ — from 200 years ago

The “billionaire tax” is a bad socialist idea that is already centuries old.

In fact, the first warning about the tax came 200 years ago from a French traveler — Alexis de Tocqueville.

Tocqueville was fascinated by the United States. He admired its energy and optimism, which he believed France, and Europe, had lost.

The class warfare, division, and hatred that spread through Europe — along with the ideas of Karl Marx, who was Tocqueville’s contemporary — had not yet reached the U.S.

Tocqueville explored the country and wrote a celebrated treatise, Democracy in America, which is still studied today.

Tocqueville did more than record his observations about America during what was known as the Era of Good Feelings. 

He also developed theories about what made democracy work.

He knew that throughout history, the most powerful argument against democracy was that poor people, being greater in number, would vote to seize the property of the rich.

“In the United States,” Tocqueville wrote, “where the poor rule, the rich have always something to fear from the abuse of their power.”

Moreover, he knew that democratic government risked financial ruin, because the poor would vote for “extravagant” government spending on........

© New York Post