Once upon a time I wrote an illustrated children’s book called The Wish Ring. It is the story of Hans, who finds a magic ring with a single wish. A wily goldsmith manages to substitute an ordinary ring for Hans’ magic one. Upon his return to his miserable farm, Hans plans to use his wish to buy additional land, a cow, sheep, a barn, a horse, etc, but instead of using his wish he works extra hard, and so he never discovers the evil deed of the now defunct goldsmith. The latter had wished for a ton of gold, which instantly rained down from his ceiling and crushed him to death.

I am not a political writer, but I cannot understand the stance of many of those who represent us in Washington. I cannot imagine that all our super-rich believe that they need all the money they have. Our country is in economic trouble. I am sure that there is waste, big programs need restructuring, and some can be axed, but by and large we need the major entitlements, we must educate our children better than we do, we do need an army, an efficient anti-terrorist protection, and a ton of other things. So we do need more revenue. What is so terrible about raising taxes? Nobody—I included—likes paying more taxes, but I want this country to continue being strong, healthy, free and compassionate, and that takes a lot of money.