Frankly Mr. Gummer, I don't see progressive income taxes as "Marxist" - and I don't think anyone who understand public and classic economics does either... As to your oil price variability comment -  running a government based solely on the price vagaries of a single commodity that's subject to near-monopolistic pricing controlled by others is a recipe for disaster - which we are close to!  Sitting on our hands and smiling when oil jumps all the way up to less than half what it was two years ago doesn't make much sense to me...