One of the beauties of the Internet is the occasional unsolicited e-mail containing a small gem of unalloyed truth.

Once in a while, you get one that bears repeating.

A succinct parable hurtling through cyberspace now clearly explains our tax system, and explodes the liberal myth that tax cuts are “unfair” because they “favor” the rich.

The story concerns a group of diners who pay their restaurant tab the way we pay taxes. Each pays a different share of the total, $100.

The first four, being “poor,” pay nothing. The fifth pays a buck. The sixth and seventh, just a little better off, pay $3 and $7. The eighth pays $12, the ninth, $18, and the tenth, the richest, $59.

As a reward for their faithful patronage, the restaurateur dropped the price of the meal by $20 to $80. Problem was, $20 divided by the six men who paid the bill would mean the fifth and sixth get paid to eat, They agreed that would be unfair, so the restaurateur proposed lowering everyone’s tab by a fair amount.

Under the new arrangement, the fifth fellow also got a free meal, while the sixth paid $2, the seventh, $5, the eighth, $9, and the ninth, $12. The 10th man paid $52. Dollarwise, the bill for each man dropped substantially, but it went down the most for the man who paid the most.

Thus did the bellyaching begin.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20,” declared the sixth man after dinner. He pointed to the 10th. “But he got $7!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth, who ate for free. “I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got seven times more than me!”

“That’s true!” shouted the seventh. “Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”

So the nine men mugged the 10th.

Ironically, the 10th man paid an even greater share of the bill than before, while the others paid less. As well, although the 10th man paid 59 percent of the original bill, he received only 35 percent of the pricebreak. He paid 65 percent of the reduced bill. He didn’t show up for dinner again.

When the nine finished eating next time, they were $52 short.

The diners represent taxpayers, and if those who pay the $52 are to be “attacked for being wealthy,” the author says, “they just might not show up at the table anymore.”

Good theory, except the taxpayers’ restaurant, Uncle Sam’s Club, doesn’t cancel reservations. Don’t show for chow, and the owner sends his accountant, the IRS, to make an offer you can’t refuse.

Still, the writer makes his point: People who pay the biggest share of taxes always get the most benefit from a tax reduction. That is not “unfair.” The truth is so obvious one cannot conclude the liberals and Democrats don’t get it. They get it, and they don’t care.

They want free money from the industrious for their constituents, the indolent freeloaders who eat for free. They’ve even seduced much of the middle class with the creed of class hatred and envy.

This, and nothing else, inspires the liberals on tax reform.

R. Cort Kirkwood is managing editor of the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va. His e-mail address is: [email protected].