Tax the rich; go broke

The favourite solution of the Left to the West's financial woes is to "Tax the rich", as if the "rich" have a bottomless pit of cash that they refuse to do anything with except swim around in ala Scrooge McDuck.  In fact, taxing the "rich" turns out to be a perfect plan for financial ruin:

Nearly half of California's income taxes before the recession came from the top 1% of earners: households that took in more than $490,000 a year. High earners, it turns out, have especially volatile incomes—their earnings fell by more than twice as much as the rest of the population's during the recession. When they crashed, they took California's finances down with them.

Maybe a better plan might be for governments to concentrate on the dull things that are their real duties (such as  policing, fighting fires, fixing pot holes, and maintaining the parks), let people keep more of their own money, get the parasites off the public teat (including benefit collectors, quangos, and cronies), stop playing social engineer, and stop pouring (borrowed) cash down every faddish rat hole that comes along.  But what fun is that?