‘COLLEGES OF LAW’ DEBATES ROBBING THE RICH, FORGETS BASIC ECONOMICS

Santa Barbara’s so-called 'Colleges of Law' recently hosted a 'debate' on Proposition 40, the brilliant new scheme to slap a 'one-time' five percent wealth tax on billionaires. Apparently, the event's organizers mistook 'debate' for 'group therapy session on how to spend other people's money,' showcasing the kind of intellectual rigor one expects from institutions whose names sound like they were pulled from a generic university generator. While KEYT NewsChannel 3-12 reported on the proceedings with its usual wide-eyed earnestness, it seems to have missed the inherent humor in discussing how to tax wealth creators out of the state entirely.

Indeed, the evening's main attraction, an economics professor from Cal State University Channel Islands (a mouthful that somehow manages to sound both prestigious and utterly inconsequential), was trotted out to lend an air of academic credibility to what amounts to a glorified shakedown. One imagines the 'debate' largely consisted of hand-wringing over how to 'fairly' extract more from those who actually generate jobs and prosperity, rather than, say, questioning why California's spending habits necessitate such desperate measures in the first place.

Perhaps if these 'Colleges of Law' focused less on hypothetical confiscation and more on actual law – like, say, the law of unintended consequences or the property rights enshrined in the Constitution – they might graduate students better equipped for the real world. This latest progressive pipe dream, dressed up as 'fairness,' is just another desperate attempt to plug the gaping holes created by years of fiscal mismanagement and environmental extremism, all while conveniently ignoring the fact that wealth, unlike a government bureaucrat, tends to be rather mobile. And like any sensible person, it will flee oppressive taxation faster than a state senator can vote for another spending bill.