This is why Europe works

Rich Germans demand higher taxes.

I am not making this up:

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.

The group say they have more money than they need [my emphasis], and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery.

Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say.

I'll admit, when I first read this story I immediately looked the catch. What could possibly be in it for these socially-conscious plutocrats if taxes were higher? Was this a cleverly-laid ruse, the first seeds of a coup planted in a fertile field?

Then I thought, oh, well, maybe rich people everywhere aren't a pack of ravenous hyenas who cackle maddeningly at their prey even as they rip the marrow from its bones. And hey, the German petition's only got 44 signatories so far, and they had a lower-than-expected turn-out at their march in Berlin, so there must still be a lot of heinous people there, right?

But then, could you ever imagine this happening in America?

Signatory Peter Vollmer told AFP news agency he was supporting the proposal because he had inherited "a lot of money I do not need"

What about his Coup-de-ville rollin' on dubs? It's hearing stuff like that that actually makes me kind of like being a human being. It also reminds me that the root of all of our Anglo-American cynicism about the self-interested nature of man probably has a lot to do with the fact that our wealthy people never do, feel or say things like that, and so, through positive feedback, we've all come to accept that everyone really is a bastard and that you've just got to get along with that fact. I'm not saying that Germany's some corporatist miracle, but it's damn sure got a lower gini score than us and damn sure got a guy like Peter Vollmer who opts for social and environmental programs over sippin' on Petron.