A Problem with the Ownership Society?

Scott Johnson and John Hinderaker of Powerline have written an interesting essay inThe American Enterprise that gives a good historical account of how taxation has changed over time and a surprising peril in the current plans for Social Security Reform:

And there's the rub. 'Rebating' a big chunk of payroll taxes back to workers in the form of personal accounts is devoutly to be wished for in most ways. But one troubling side effect of such a transformation would be to nakedly expose the tax burden that our personal income tax disproportionately lays on the top 5 percent of Americans. Our Founders had no confidence that voters, unmoored from financial responsibility, would refrain from pillaging the wealth of their neighbors. If most of Washington's costs end up piled on just a few backs, the only thing preventing a sharp ratcheting up of the income tax will be the decency and political principle of ordinary Americans. In that event, we will find out whether Aristotle and James Madison were too pessimistic in their view of human selfishness--or unhappily accurate.

An interesting take on this issue. I tend to believe that Bush's 'Ownership Society' would in fact increase long term thinking and responsible behavior, but this argument that it might not has some merit.