{"id":10690,"date":"2026-05-09T00:03:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=10690"},"modified":"2026-04-29T14:56:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:56:56","slug":"kurt-vonneguts-prometheus-winning-harrison-bergeron-recognized-for-real-world-relevance-to-millionaires-tax-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/kurt-vonneguts-prometheus-winning-harrison-bergeron-recognized-for-real-world-relevance-to-millionaires-tax-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s Prometheus-winning \u201cHarrison Bergeron\u201d recognized for real-world relevance to \u201cmillionaires\u2019 tax\u201d debate\u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s \u201cHarrison Bergeron\u201d is a cautionary and satirical tale warning about the imagined future excesses of radical egalitarianism and attacks on individualism and personal excellence carried to absurd and coercive extremes.<\/p>\n

The classic story, inducted in 2019 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, suddenly seems as relevant as recent headlines about state and federal efforts to impose unprecedented confiscatory taxation on wealthier people.<\/p>\n

Challenging the view that everything is or should become property of the State, NR Online<\/a> writer Andrew Stuttaford invokes Vonnegut\u2019s themes in a perceptive column.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Broadening his analysis to explain how feudalism and millenarianism embraced the same false concept, Stuttaford skewers current proposals as authoritarian, counterproductive, harmful to the eco\"\"<\/a>nomy and to many millions of less-wealthy Americans and delusional in its goals.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an excerpt, framing and introducing Stuttaford\u2019s apt reference to \u201cHarrison Bergeron\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the \u201cclassic\u201d feudalism introduced in England by the Normans after their hostile takeover in 1066, ownership of land and anything built upon it ultimately belonged to the crown. Movable property was a different matter. What was yours was essentially yours, if subject to levies at awkward moments. That probably means that Senator Elizabeth Warren thinks of Willian the Conqueror as having been a soft touch. Should her Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act pass (and be found to be constitutional), everything, however contingently, will become property of the state. As of late March, ten senators and 39 congresspeople had co-sponsored Warren\u2019s bill\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome leftist leaders may really believe they are working toward a fairer world: Millenarianism is a seductive psychosis. However radiant (to some) this vision of the future, its promise of a preceding purge of the supposedly sinful is also part of its appeal. The spite and the jealousy displayed by wealth tax activists toward the \u201crich\u201d is no less genuine for being strategically useful. They, one part of the elite (or would-be elite), see what another part has, and they crave it for themselves. They are enraged at the thought that they have been left behind by people they see as money-grubbing moral inferiors. Their egalitarianism is a tool to create a system in which they and their acolytes take the spoils.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then there\u2019s \u201climitarianism,\u201d the name that Belgo-Dutch philosopher Ingrid Robeyns uses for her plan to cap \u201cthe amount of wealth any one person can have.\u201d Robeyns maintains (as related by The Atlantic\u2019s <\/i>Christine Emba in 2024) that the superrich \u201cwould be better off morally and psychologically\u201d without their wealth. For Robeyns to appoint herself both priestess and psychiatrist is presumptuous, but it takes presumption to put a lid on the aspiration of millions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, the ghost of Harrison Bergeron leaps into view, hotly pursued by Diana Moon Glampers, Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s handicapper general, a job that Robeyns would relish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stuttaford makes quite a few points – both empirical and philosophical – in his wide-ranging essay “Warren’s Wealth Tax and the Return of Feudalism,”<\/a> which is worth reading in full on the National Review<\/em> website.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
“2081,” a 2009 film based on Vonnegut’s story Harrison Bergeron (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But here\u2019s one more quote from the story that highlights the dangerous inversion of American and libertarian principles of self-ownership and individual rights under a policy that basically makes citizens into feudal near-slaves:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extent to which such a tax would downgrade American citizens to American subjects is only underlined by the measures proposed to ensure that the \u201cultra millionaires\u201d cannot escape its grip. One reason many similar taxes elsewhere have been abandoned is that they have led to exoduses of wealth and talent. But American federal taxes follow citizenship, not residence, a principle followed by no other country other than, to an extremely limited extent, Eritrea,\u201d Stuttafort writes.<\/p>\n

“While very few\u2014absent savage inflation\u2014will have to worry for now about being caught within Warren\u2019s net, the fact that this tax is not only targeted at billionaires already sends a message. It will not be long before the definition of ultra-wealthy is defined further down, and more and more citizens find themselves caught in a tightening net.<\/p>\n

“To start, Warren\u2019s assertion that the tax would raise $6.2 trillion over ten years essentially rests on the assumption that those paying it would not change their behavior in response to the raid on their finances. According to research prepared by the University of Pennsylvania in 2019, the actual amount raised would be far less than Warren then claimed. The people at UPenn were not the only analysts who found that Warren\u2019s estimates were too high, and the same is likely true today. The tax will supposedly fund \u201cuniversal, affordable\u201d childcare, expand the Child Tax Credit, lower the Medicare eligibility age to 55, establish tuition-free community college, and pay for much more besides. If revenues disappoint, will spending be cut or will taxes be increased?<\/p>\n

“Yes, that is a rhetorical question.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the economic implications of Warren\u2019s current proposal are bad enough as it is. The Wharton researchers estimated that the tax would reduce GDP growth, private capital formation, and wages. That the victims of this tax would include those that it is (nominally) meant to help will not unduly concern Warren and her team. For all the pretty talk about fighting poverty, improving education, and all the rest, wealth taxes are about power. The political rewards they deliver will be what counts. Demonizing and dehumanizing the \u201crich\u201d is designed to harness populist support to the ambitions of the progressive intelligentsia, a task that may be made easier if AI wreaks havoc in the labor market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kurt Vonnegut in 1972 (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the Prometheus Blog appreciation of Vonnegut\u2019s timeless cautionary tale notes, \u201cthe genius of Vonnegut lies in his vivid scenario revealing the true horrors that materialize when ruthless and unchecked government power, reinforced by an insidious prevailing ideology, literally destroys people\u2019s talents and lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS<\/b><\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced \u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of the 106 works that have won a Prometheus since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s \u201cHarrison Bergeron\u201d is a cautionary and satirical tale warning about the imagined future excesses of radical egalitarianism and attacks on individualism and personal excellence carried to absurd and coercive extremes. The classic story, inducted in 2019 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, suddenly seems as relevant as recent headlines about … Continue reading Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s Prometheus-winning \u201cHarrison Bergeron\u201d recognized for real-world relevance to \u201cmillionaires\u2019 tax\u201d debate\u2028<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2218,1585],"tags":[2838,1149,1042,113,112,2839,268],"class_list":["post-10690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics-in-fiction","category-fiction-in-the-news","tag-confiscatory-taxation","tag-egalitarianism","tag-feudalism","tag-harrison-bergeron","tag-kurt-vonnegut","tag-millenialism","tag-prometheus-hall-of-fame"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2Mq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10690"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10698,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10690\/revisions\/10698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}