A dear friend of our family's died recently. He had been a successful businessman, respected by colleagues and community members for his impeccable integrity. He was a wealthy man, both in material assets and in the richness of his relationships and his good name.

Friends joked that he was rich enough to be a Republican. After all, he had assets to protect, and concerns that his wealth be passed on as an inheritance for the next generation. Such concerns can understandably make people incline toward fiscal conservatism.

But not this man. He said with absolute clarity that the system had been good to him, and he believed that what he paid in taxes was repayment of a debt to a society that had created the circumstances for his success.

Where are such voices in the current uproar over President Obama's budget proposal? Where are the wealthy people writing into the newspaper to say that they will still have more than enough even after paying a fairer share in taxes? We hear much over-heated rhetoric, calling the president's proposal "socialism" (that dirty word) or "transfer of wealth" (a euphemism for socialism). Only infrequently, as in today's New York Times, do we read the truth, that President Obama's proposal essentially aims to return to pre-Reagan days, when the gap between the rich and the poor in this nation was more modest than it has been for the last thirty years.

When did an enormous gap between rich and poor in this country come to be seen as an entitlement, rather than as an unjust privilege bestowed on the wealthy and an unlivable burden placed on the poor?

Adjustment of the tax structure to narrow that gap is not socialism; it is basic fairness. It asks those who have been the beneficiaries of our nation's economic prosperity in past decades to regard their taxes, as our friend did, not as money stolen from them by the government, but as repayment of a debt to society.

A beloved ancient Jewish text offers the following teaching: Who is rich? The one who is happy with what one has. Would that more people would heed this ancient wisdom.