Max Myers, a candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, has proposed raiding private retirement accounts to prop up the retirement accounts of the state’s public employees.

He wants to institute a financial transaction tax on the sale and transfer of stocks and bonds and was quoted in a newspaper article saying “(W)hen wealthy people and stock market speculators buy a company’s stock or bonds, they pay no sales tax on the purchase.”

Myers seems ignorant of the fact many people who are far from wealthy buy stocks and bonds as part of their retirement plan, either as individuals or through pension plans provided by their employers.

He also doesn’t seem to know there are tens of thousands of small businesses incorporated in Pennsylvania, and that these far from wealthy small businesses sometimes need or want to sell stock to raise capital or transfer portions of their ownership to family members.

If Myers is nominated to be the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor in the general election, he will not get my vote.