Robert Tideman on “Soaking The Rich” (1952)
| Arash Norouzi The Mossadegh Project | February 11, 2026 |
This Letter to the Editor of The San Francisco Chronicle came after reports that wealthy Iranians would soon be required to pay back taxes up to 10 years past on real estate. Hundreds of headlines and editorials wore out the
phrase “soak the rich”.
Robert Tideman, who sent the letter, happened to write and lecture about property and sales tax. Premier Mossadegh himself, incidentally, was a wealthy landowner.
Interestingly, this was one of the few instances where the media did not hate on Mossadegh. Commented The Danville Bee, “It hardly will make Americans who are paying through the nose anywhere from 20 per cent to 50 per cent of
their earning to Uncle Sam feel sorry for the Iranian rich.”
Bonus: two short, relevant editorials in U.S. newspapers, one even in prose.
August 29, 1952
The Letter Forum
Land Tax
Editor — Why do we act so shocked and call it “soaking the rich” when Mossadegh levies a 2 per cent tax on land in Iran and takes steps to enforce collection? We have more than a 6 per cent tax on land in San Francisco, every year, and
whoever does not pay it forfeits his title. Mossadegh is doing just what we have done here ever since 1776.
The story on Mossadegh’s move has been given a strange twist. Just because the landlords (we call them property owners) are called on to pay up back taxes they have “traditionally ignored,” the measure is called “soaking the rich.”
Don’t you wish you could “traditionally ignore” your income tax?
ROBERT TIDEMAN.
San Francisco.
• Tideman (1920-1993) was Executive Director of the Henry George School of Social Science, retiring in 1974. From a 1974 article in The Henry George News, The Robert Tideman Story:
“Mr. Tideman has sought assessment reform research on tax issues and on measures proposed by the State legislature, representing civic groups interested in recouping some of the increased land values created by community projects
such as BART. He has many times spoken against granting property tax exemptions for land held by private schools, and has opposed every sales tax proposed during his residence on the West Coast. He has consistently urged reform in
property tax assessment, pointing out that among the extravagances of the government is the non-collection of community-created ground rents, and that reducing taxes on land is itself inflationary.”
August 8, 1952
The Birmingham News (Alabama)
Mossadegh’s New Tax
They’re calling it a soak-the-rich realty tax which Mossadegh is planning for Iran. But it is only a 2 per cent levy, and the fact is that exceedingly wealthy Iranian landowners long have largely shirked financial responsibility for their own country. If a great many foreign lands could successfully levy a land tax of even 1 per cent, many foreign financial ills would be nearer solution.
August 23, 1952
The Durham Sun (North Carolina)
“Soaking The Rich”
Iran’s weeping Premier, Mossadegh,
Has ordered Iran’s ruling class wealthy
To pay back taxes they traditionally have ignored.
“Soaking the rich,” the Tehran correspondent calls it.
Nothing of the sort.
He is lowering the boom on the tax dodgers.
France could well do the same, and—
What has happened to “fixer” McGranery’s great
Housecleaning in the United States?
[James P. McGranery, U.S. Attorney General]
Related links:
But Is It Reform? | The Boston Globe, August 23, 1952
Egypt, Iran Soak Rich Landowners Same Day | AP, Aug. 14, 1952
Iranian-American in San Francisco Defends Iran’s Oil Drive (1951 Letter)
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
