Andrew Brown of Bath makes the argument that if more taxes were collected from higher earners on Social Security, the program would remain solvent (“Making the wealthy pay payroll tax will solve Social Security deficit,” May 10).
I am reminded of Lawrence Kohlberg’s Heinz dilemma, which asks, as a way to determine the level of moral development, whether Heinz should steal a drug to save his wife’s life. My own take is that anyone who believes in property rights should answer “no.”
Mr. Brown, on the other hand, finds it quite acceptable to take more money from those with higher incomes.
Perhaps one distinction between the left and the right is that people on the left find redistribution (taking from those with more and giving to those with less) quite acceptable, while those on the right (myself included) consider it theft.
William Vaughan Jr.
Chebeague Island
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