Bentway, There was less of a gap in the past, when taxes on the wealthy, corporations and capital gains were much higher. Do you deny this? Someone has to pay the taxes. If the wealthy don't shoulder their fair share, you and I end up paying more. We don't have to pay more. We can argue for smaller, more efficient, LIMITED government.
The gap between rich and poor is growing not because taxes aren't high enough. Heck, the rich in California, for instance, are now paying over 50% of their gross income in taxes (federal, state, and local). How much higher do you want, Utah-boy? 90%? No one paid that much even in the 1950's.
Instead, the gap is growing because we are relying more and more on huge, centralized institutions to support our modern standards of life. That's true for health care, retirement, transportation, food, and even the new digital world we live in.
There is no easy way to address this issue, but what I do know is that government is the worst way to redistribute that wealth. All too often, government will just punish success and reward failure. That's a surefire way to follow in the ruinous steps of communism.
This is why I think raising taxes on the wealthy will actually increase the gap between rich and poor. That and the fact that the taxes you want to raise is on income, i.e. the accumulation of wealth, not wealth itself.
Essentially, that means you want the rich to stay rich and the poor to stay poor.
Tenchusatsu |
