A few days ago the Wall Street Journal ran a screaming headline: "WEALTHY FACE TAX INCREASE." Let's consider how the headline relates to that lovely lass Lucy, Charles Schulz's Peanuts character.

What a little harpy. All of Schulz's work is poignant and funny, but to me the funniest strips of all have been the ones in which Charlie Brown is kicking the football and Lucy is the holder. He lines up to kick, he runs to the ball, and at the last moment she pulls the ball away. He ends up on his arse each and every time.

The strips are funny for at least two reasons. They are funny first because even though Charlie Brown ends up on his rear each and every time, he somehow finds the fortitude to again and again line up to kick the ball. The strips are funny second because we just despise Lucy. How horrible is it that she repeatedly takes advantage of that boy's hope, presumably only for her own pleasure at watching his pain?

So here is the comparison. The government is Lucy and the rich are Charlie Brown.

The vast majority of "the rich" get rich by selling stuff at good value to lots of people. (A few inherit their money, steal their money or marry their money, but most earn it). Anyway, from the high end of the spectrum where we find entrepreneurs creating giant enterprises like Google, to the vast middle level where countless business owners create companies that quietly move the economy along, right down to Mom and Pop operations, all these risk takers are just like Charlie Brown. They line up to kick that football. They are committed to starting, running and growing their businesses, and trying to offer value to customers and make money. These entrepreneurs are America's football kicking Charlie Browns.

But, ah, says our dear President Obama, the rich have money. I need money to reward my family and friends and to get votes, so I will appeal to class envy and tell the middle and lower classes that the rich will be paying the bills for all my programs. The middle and lower classes instinctively dislike the rich because often the rich are their bosses and they hate their bosses. So Obama, like Lucy, says he will take away their profits. He thus pulls the football away and leaves them on their rear ends.

But here the comic strip world departs from the real world. Whereas Charlie Brown may line up again and again, at some point the rich, the drivers of our economy, will not line up. They will decline to start businesses. The risks will not be worth taking if they can't keep their money in the event they are both wise and fortunate enough to succeed.

As our entrepreneurs jog to the bench, the middle and lower classes will find their jobs disappearing. Our standard of living will stagnate and drop. Most significantly, our culture will become one of class envy instead of one of dynamic individual capitalism, and we will find it hard to reset to the patterns that have heretofore made America the world's sparkling economic jewel.

And let us consider our forebears and our progeny. Our forebears (excluding those who came in chains) moved to America because it was the land of opportunity. The immigrants knew they would work menial jobs but they also knew their children would move up. Are we willing to sell out their sacrifices to reduce our own risks - all at the cost of our successor's betterment? I can imagine no worse deal.

In the course of writing this column I showed the "WEALTHY FACE TAX INCREASE" headline to a few folks at my customary Delmar Loop Starbucks. Some construction guys drink coffee there every morning before going off to work on Wash. U. building projects. Interestingly, the elder statesman of the group, "Frank," figured it out right away. He disapproved of increasing the tax burden on the wealthy. He smiled at my remark that "no one ever got a job from a poor man." The younger guys on the other hand seemed to think "WEALTHY FACE TAX INCREASE" offered the right approach.

As I write this article I ponder how to reach these young guys so they understand in their gut that the rich are not like Charlie Brown. As taxes go up, the potential rewards of entrepreneurship go down. If we follow our dear President Obama's path we will come to a point where a critical mass of entrepreneurs will lose their gut drive to create new businesses.

Obama should cool it on the attack-the-rich class-envy rhetoric. He should advocate slashing government spending and benefits by 50 percent. I say no one should pay more than 20 percent of their income in all cumulative taxes, and those who can't pay should get less.

If we adopt this approach, entrepreneurship will thrive, and so will individual self reliance. America will resume its march to an ever-increasing standard of living, with ever-increasing opportunity for individual pursuit of happiness.

Otherwise it will not be funny at all.