David Brooks' column in today's Times, "The Gospel of Wealth," had me chuckling.

He was writing about the excesses of the past few years, as consumers bought huge houses and "bulbous vehicles like Hummers and Suburbans. ("The rule was, The Smaller the Woman, the Bigger the Car - so you would see a 90-pound lady in tennis whites driving a 4-ton truck with enough headroom to allow her to drive with her doubles partner perched atop her shoulders.")

Brooks urges restraint and the renouncing of "moral materialism." But he doesn't address a parallel issue: the growing disparity of wealth in this country, and the explosion of wealth among the nation's richest citizens.

There seems to be no such thing as being too rich. And there is growing sentiment that letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans is, um, un-American.

Hummers, Suburbans, and mini-mansions are easy targets. And certainly Brooks is right: materialism has become a corruptive force in this country.

Far too many Americans don't earn a decent wage, though. And far too many don't have a job at all.

There's a lot to be fixed in this economy, and the fixing won't be easy or cheap. Letting tax cuts for the wealthy expire won't do the whole job, but it's an essential part of a first step. It's also a moral issue. And we need to have the courage to say that out loud.