How The Wealthy Can Pay More in Taxes: Stop Sending Kids to Camp in Private Jets



It’s What They Mean by the Term “Shared Sacrifice”

As the budget deficit/debt ceiling problem drags on and on and on (Who will rid us of this meddlesome discussion!) it is now clear that tax increases on the wealthiest of Americans will not be part of any deficit reduction.  One reason is that these tax increases would potentially devastate the life style of the wealthy.



Andy Molloy for The New York Times

Ana Sxxx, 13, at the airport
in Augusta, Me.

, on Saturday. She took a private
 jet from Miami with her parents to attend camp.



There is no better example of the destructive nature of having the wealthy pay more taxes than this story in the New York Times about the growth of parents using private jets to send their kids to summer camp.

Now, even as the economy limps along, more of the nation’s wealthier families are cutting out the car ride and chartering planes to fly to summer camps. One private jet broker, Todd Rome of Blue Star Jets, said his summer-camp business had jumped 30 percent over the last year.

This weekend, a popular choice for visiting day at camps, private planes jammed the runways at small rural airports.

The good news, everyone can afford to do this

Mr. Rome, the Blue Star Jets president, said families could rent a seven-person turboprop plane starting at $3,800 for a round trip in one day, making the price competitive with some commercial flights.

“You don’t have to be a millionaire to do it,” Mr. Rome said.

So as the federal government prepares for massive cuts in welfare, health care and education programs The Dismal Political Economist urges everyone to make sure they understand the priorities here.  Raising taxes on the wealthy instead of cutting government programs on the truly needy could result in, dare he say it, the summer campers with wealthy parents having to fly, gasp, commercial, to go to camp.

Oh the horror!