A Modest Proposal

The great issue of our time has emerged as the monumental disproportion of income; an overwhelming part of our national wealth is taken by a relative handful, leaving the vast majority to struggle to meet the daily needs of families. The unchecked growth of this disparity poses an increasing threat to the fabric and serenity of our society.
 Many reasons have been assigned for the widening wealth gap including deregulation, tax rates favoring the rich, the weakening of unions, the court-sanctioned role of big money in politics, unfavorable trade pacts, development of labor-saving technology and the stagnation of minimum wage levels.
 A listing of these putative causes suggests the solutions which have been advanced; greater governmental regulation, higher tax rates for the wealthy, increased taxation on wealth transfer (estate taxes), enhanced protection of labor in trade agreements, a higher minimum wage, stronger unions and limits on the spending of deep-pocket political donors.
 While these proposed remedies are relevant and potentially useful, I wish to offer a modest proposal for leveling the playing field. The compensation of corporate managers has ballooned to obscene proportions, especially in the area of securities trading which, arguably, adds little to the common good. These oceanic rewards are treated as expenses by the corporate payers, thus shifting the burden to the government and the tax-paying public.
 The solution is to modify the tax code to limit the extent to which a company may claim as an expense the amounts paid to executives. Presumably the loss of tax advantage would incline corporations to spread their income more broadly by increasing the pay of middle managers and lower paid workers. This approach does not prevent corporations from continuing to pay outlandish compensation should they choose to do so; it simply removes the public's unwilling participation in funding such extravagance and, perhaps, serves to dissuade unbridled corporate largess.
 Yes, we are a nation of unfettered opportunity and of freedom to amass great wealth. This proposal would not denigrate that oft-repeated credo; it merely makes more realistic the opportunity for the many to achieve at least a modicum of comfort even as it strengthens the ties that keep our diverse society whole.