* * Where did the money go?

It’s near dark; the weather is awful, spitting rain and cold. I’m sitting in my immobile car on Interstate 81 near Ironto, going nowhere, wondering where the money went.

State politicians have been talking about piecing together solutions to the worsening problem of I-81, how to improve it and make it safer and more reliable. It is the transportation ribbon and economic lifeline for our region. Too many of our neighbors are being injured or killed on it, worst case, or merely inconvenienced like me. I wonder what’s blocking traffic and whether there’s been another fatality, another life lost on this scenic but deadly road.

Being in the bifocal set, I remember the days in the ‘60s before it existed, with the trip to the “big city” of Roanoke taking motorists from Christiansburg down the mountain on US11/460 towards Shawsville, big coal trains chugging alongside, along the Elliston straight-away, passing menacing trucks in lanes barely wider than their trailers, past Dixie Caverns, into Salem.

When I-81 opened up, everything changed. This marvel of engineering seemed like a dream come true! No narrow bridges. Fully divided travel lanes. Wide paved shoulders. No traffic lights and sparse traffic. Wow!

Sure, there were societal problems in those days, with political upheaval and civil rights struggles. But we were a growing, developing, forward-thinking country. We built the Interstate highway system, fought a foreign war, and put a man on the moon at the same time. The Interstates revolutionized how we travel and even how we develop and inhabit the land. I welled up with pride when American astronauts planted our flag on the moon. Innovations from government sponsored research in the space program continue to benefit us today. How did we do that?

Now we can’t even afford to maintain the Interstates, much less expand or modernize. France, Germany, Italy, China, and Japan have 200+ MPH trains; our fastest top out at 125 MPH and occasionally derail.

I move 100 feet forward, then stop again. I cut the engine. Fidget with my cell phone.

I figure the big difference is that in those days, we asked our wealthiest citizens to pay their fair share. In fact, the highest marginal tax rate on rich people was between 70% and 90% from the beginning of WWII until Ronald Reagan came into office. In other words, from around 1935 until 1980, the taxed portion of annual income over $1,000,000 was $700,000 to $900,000. In effect, the federal government said to folks, “Most of what you make under $1 million, you can keep, but beyond that, most will be taxed from you.” Today’s tax code is far more generous to corporations and the wealthy than to anyone or anything else.

Reagan reasoned that if rich people kept more of their money, it would trickle down to the rest of us. It didn’t. It hasn’t. It won’t. The earning potential of the majority of Americans stagnated and the money at the top sat in investment portfolios and largely went nowhere.

Now, with various tax avoidance schemes, many millionaires pay little if anything. Billionaire Warren Buffett says he pays a lower overall tax rate than his secretary.

My libertarian friend spouts the threadbare meme that “all taxation is theft.” But all societies tax citizens for government services, including highways. Schemes like a “flat tax” that some insist are the only fair solutions, are unworkable and impractical. Someone who makes $20,000 can’t pay 10% of it in taxes, whereas someone who makes $20,000,000 can and should pay far more than 10%, because they have been greater beneficiaries of what the economic system provides. Progressive taxation is the only practicable solution.

One-quarter of American workers earn less than $10/hr. While the wealthiest 10% of our countrymen recovered nicely after the 2008 financial crisis, low wage workers didn’t. Millions of low wage workers have no health insurance, sick days, pension plans, or political clout. Corporate CEOs make 300, 500, or 1000 times or higher more than their average workers. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos makes the annual salary of his lowest worker every 11 seconds, 24/7. Think about that.

I’ll leave the question about whether it is more moral to let him keep that money while millions of Americans tiptoe above financial disaster or more moral to tax most of it. I will say that if that money was taxed, then spent in infrastructure, we’d not only have better roads, but the people paid to build those roads would spend that money back into the economy, a rising tide raising all boats. High taxes on wealthy people are good for the economy, not a burden on it.

Regardless of your thoughts on the morality of taxation, unequal societies are unsustainable societies. The masses in our country are poorer, sicker, and more marginalized than at any time in our lifetimes. They are taking out that misery and anger by electing politicians who promise, but invariably fail to produce, any better for them.

I move forward a couple hundred more feet and then stop again. Rain pelts on my windshield. And I wonder if we’ll ever start investing in our country again.