Wealth & Money Quote by Steve Forbes

Fairness is doing a lot of ideological lifting here. When Steve Forbes promises a tax system where "everyone will pay the same tax", he is selling a moral shortcut: replace the messy, value-laden arguments about who should shoulder more with a single, clean number. The rhetorical move is classic market populism. It borrows the language of egalitarianism while advancing a policy vision - typically a flat tax - that tends to advantage higher earners and simplify obligations for capital.

The phrase "it will be fair" is less a conclusion than a preemptive shield. If the policy is framed as fairness itself, opposition can be painted as special pleading. Then come the villains: "tax cheaters" and "corporate shenanigans". Forbes doesn't just propose rates; he offers purification. Complexity becomes corruption, and the solution is austerely mechanical: same rate, fewer loopholes, fewer tricks. It's a satisfying story because it swaps political conflict for technical hygiene.

The subtext is an indictment of the current system's legitimacy: not merely inefficient, but morally compromised. Yet the promise that uniformity "will eliminate" cheating is strategic overreach. Enforcement, power, and lobbying don't vanish because the form is simpler; they mutate. Context matters: Forbes built a political brand in the 1990s pushing tax simplification as both pro-growth and anti-elite, a way to make conservative economics feel like reform rather than redistribution upward. The appeal isn't just lower taxes; it's the fantasy of a rulebook no one can game - except, historically, those best positioned to rewrite it.