In his opinion piece in Thursday’s June 18th, 2026 Chronicle Herald, Mitch Sabbagh argues that we should stop worrying about taxing the rich. When we hear about Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire, it feels like the game is rigged. The idea that wealth is just a “pie” that stays the same is missing the point. When a tiny group of people hold almost all the money, it actually makes life harder for everyone else. Working families have less money for groceries, rent, and heating their homes. When people cannot afford the basics, the whole economy suffers.
Taxing extreme wealth is not about punishment. It is about getting the resources we need for things that help us all, like healthcare and public transit. A fair system means everyone pays their share, but today’s rules allow the wealthy to use loopholes to pay less tax than an everyday worker.
Making it easier for people to invest sounds good on paper, but we have to ask: who does it actually help? A system that focuses on the stock market might leave behind the people who keep our country running. Most workers simply do not have extra money to put into a brokerage account. We need solutions that support higher wages, benefits, and job security, not just investments.
Relying on private investors to fix our communities is risky. Just ask yourself where it has gotten us in the last 50 years. When we give tax breaks to corporations, big business and developers, they almost always choose the path that makes the most profit. This often leads to gentrification, where new, expensive buildings go up, and the people who have lived in a neighbourhood for generations are forced to move away. We cannot just hope that big business will care about our communities. If the last 50 years have taught us anything, it is that the rich get richer while the rest of society struggles to get by.
At the end of the day, we need to change how we measure success. A country should not be judged by how many millionaires, billionaires or trillionaires it produces. Having a few people at the very top does not mean the rest of us are doing well.
True success is found in our communities. It is found in whether a young person can afford a home, whether a senior can retire with dignity, and whether a worker can support a family on a single income. We should not just be trying to bake a bigger pie for the elite. We should be building a country where every single person gets a fair and decent slice, and where the wealthy pay their fair share on every dollar they earn, just like the rest of us.
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