The May 17, 2010 edition of PajamasMedia has published Amit Ghate’s latest OpEd, “The Nonsensical Notion of ‘Unearned Income‘”.

As Amit notes in his own blog post, “It’s basic theme is to show how the flawed notion of ‘Unearned’ Income is the result of more fundamental Marxist ideas.”

Here is the opening:

Last March, in a midnight deal to save union health care plans from taxation, Nancy Pelosi amended the notorious ObamaCare bill to levy a new 3.8% tax on “unearned” income. In a follow-on PR tour designed to put a positive spin on this disastrous piece of legislation, President Obama lauded the new tax, saying:

Right now, if you’re on salary,… you’re paying your Medicare tax on all of that… it’s part of your FICA. But if you’re Warren Buffett and you get most of your money from dividends and capital gains, you don’t pay Medicare tax on that. You’re eligible for it. You’re going to get the same Medicare benefits as anybody else. But because your source of income is what’s called unearned income — capital gains and dividends — you don’t have to pay this.

Leave aside the obvious breach of Obama’s campaign promise to not levy new taxes on those earning less than $200,000. Forget too the Democrat’s Orwellian wordplay in transmuting a “Medicare tax” into an “unearned income Medicare contribution.” Instead, consider what is meant here by “unearned,” for it reveals much about the Obama/Pelosi worldview — including insights into how to combat it.

The concept of “unearned” income is the remnant of a long-refuted economic theory known as the “labor theory of value”…

(Read the full text of “The Nonsensical Notion of ‘Unearned Income‘”..)

Congratulations, Amit, on another fine publication!