What Made America Great?

Mr. Hasson believes he knows what made America great. It wasn't that Americans believed in personal freedoms, or personal sacrifice, or any other noble attribute.

Democratic moderates (sometimes maligned as "tax and spend liberals") need to make their voices heard in Congress to the effect that raising taxes in order to stabilize Social Security is not such a bad thing. Taxes made this country great. Paying taxes assures our society that everyone has a stake in the common good and brings us that much closer to dealing with deficits, rather than borrowing money from foreign sources.

Our regressive system of taxation ensures that small subsets have the greatest stake in the common good, and a large subset has a greater stake in reaping the benefits. Is this something that makes Americans proud?