LORD ACTON REDUX

 "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."--Lord Acton

Can we be said to all agree on this? And further agree that none of us bipeds are born more or less so corruptible than our fellows? Well, whether you agree with this or not, I will proceed under just that assumption. If you think you can make a case otherwise, you're more than welcome to try. Good luck with that, though.
So. Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a large reason to protect and extend democracy. Ideally, under a democracy, all living things have some power but none have too much. Yes, there is and will continue to be a certain amount of inequality of power; that's a condition of life. But democracy is intended to make it so there is no one as abject to have no power at all nor anyone who is dangerously powerful enough to 'bid defiance to our laws and people', as Mr. Jefferson said of our moneyed corporations in the year of Grace 1814!
So this is one point of political democracy. But political democracy can be made into a hypocritical laughingstock when economic power is skewed toward the rich and already powerful. Inequality is already so great that our economy may not even be capitalist anymore: we may have crossed the line into a neo-feudal economy.
Those who have either never, or barely, had to work for their wealth think they do the poor and working people a favor by making their lives as miserably hard as possible for as little money as possible. A favor, so please you! 'Builds character', according to those who knew they were never going to miss a meal and who always had Daddy or Mumsy to pull them out of any trouble!
Well, I for one am for returning that 'favor'! How exactly am I so? Read the maxim with which I begin this post. Then reflect on what kind of power billions of privately-held dollars or other currency gives one individual or one family. Isn't that pretty dam' close to absolute?
Not to mention, aren't a lot of rich people rather anxious to save the souls of we who have much less than they by making us work so very hard for so very little? Well, that's where I want to return the favor: if absolute power corrupts absolutely, consider the state of the souls of these rich folks! How can they be other than hanging by threads above the very mouth of hell? Shouldn't we pull them back from the edge of the flaming abyss over which they hang?
Make no mistake about it: even after such 'heavy' taxation of the rich as I propose, they'll still be richer than you and me, and to such riches as that, big whoop, sez I. They'll still have vacation homes, country clubs, yachts and other toys of the rich--not so many private aircraft, though, I imagine! Shocking privation, isn't it?
But now they'll only be ten to twenty times as rich as you and I rather than 350 times as wealthy. And, with their wealth scaled down, they won't have such dangerously corrupting power as would turn feudal barons and kings into solid emeralds with envy! And, best of all, we pull their precious immortal souls well back from the edge of the flaming abyss!
And surely none of us should aspire to such wealth as to give us such all-encompassing and, thus, completely corrupting, power, now should we? So let's dispense with wanting to aspire to such a truly dangerous state; let us rather endeavor to do our own personal best at whatever we can do and at least like doing in building up each other and our ecological reserves. No one is wrong to ask for at least a modestly comfortable living by doing so; am I not correct in this? Seriously.
Finally, there is really no such thing as a monopoly on cultural power. We have media moguls, and one in particular, along with some of his spawn, has done the world horrific harm and should be prevented from doing more. But apart from that, cultural power is far more diffuse than political or economic power. Indeed, economic power affects cultural power. Culture follows money, so 'tis said, and it's true to a fair extent. I only mention 'cultural power' because I know that's where the 'What about...' is coming from today's fascists.
Anyhow, let's save the souls of our far-too-wealthy brothers and sisters by allowing no individual or family fortunes larger than $1 billion max, although my preference would be for making $500 million the maximum. And for keeping the top tax rate where it was in Ike's day back when I was born! And most of you who read my posts know what that means! As I said, the rich will still be rich but will be well back from the flames to which neo-feudal power brings us too dam' close!