Grover Norquist was on the Deuce this weekend. I told my TiVo to record it (but it didn't), and then listened to Norquist's appearance on After Words last fall, where they pitted him against Jonathan Chait.

You can watch the whole thing here.

Chait, basically, argues for higher tax rates on the rich, and the whole marginal utility theory (eventually). The most interesting thing was about halfway through, after the break I think. Norquist said, basically, why do you want to punish people who work on Saturdays? And Chait said, well, that's the difference between us. You (Norquist) see wealth as the product of virtue, something attained by working hard, and therefore you believe it should not be taxes. I (Chait) see wealth as something gained differently, from knowing the right people, from being born to the right families, from being in the right place at the right time, and, often, because grandpa worked on Saturdays.

I found it interesting in light of a couple things:

• Today is tax day. Duh.

• We had the "What People Earn" this weekend, which included a hedge-fund manager whose compensation is measured in the billions of dollars. (That, to me, seems like a market breakdown. Seriously, you couldn't find someone to do the job for only $1 billion? How about $500 million? How about $100 million? Why are the investors in this hedge fund letting this guy walk off with billions of their dollars?)

• I interviewed Harvey Hall last week about his run for mayor. He described how he started his ambulance company, which involved him and his wife on duty 24 hours a day, six days a week. Like Norquist said, "working Saturdays." But now, there's more to it than just hard work. Hall Ambulance today has an exclusive franchise area, in some ways a protected status. Lots of companies are like that — if not outright monopolies then in small fields with large barriers to entry. (Of course, that doesn't guarantee a stream of money; e.g. newspapers.)

Just thought I'd throw something out there for y'all to chew on.

-- James Geluso