DSBPI returns from a visit to Denmark, appropriately timed with May day, as Scandinavia’s capitalism is probably the globe's closest to socialism.

When you walk the streets of Copenhagen, the homogeneity of the population is striking. And it is this very sameness, the unity of peoplehood, that enables a 60% tax rate (not to mention 150% car tax and progressive property tax). The poor and rich are of the same blood, and likely the same religion. They are not separated by race, birthplace or language -- as is often the case in the U.S. (As an aside, in Denmark, the government pays students $800/month to attend college.) The relatively low tax burden in the US, along with the lack of a real social safety net, reflects the nature of an immigrant nation, where the poles of the socio-economic continuum largely mirror a racial distribution, where the wealthy have little in common with the destitute.

DSBPI postulates that the less diverse a society the greater capacity for progressive tax policy.