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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (851064)	4/19/2015 9:14:34 PM
From: i-node	3 Recommendations Recommended By d[-_-]b Taro TimF Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578704

>> Since the founding of the Republic, it has always an aspect of taxing the wealthy at a higher rate. The idea of it helping equalize wealth gaps has been around since the beginning also. Most of the Founders were profoundly distrustful of wealth concentrations. Some, like Jefferson and Madison, saw wealth concentrations as one of the biggest threats to the Republic. I'm basing my opinion on a thorough understanding of our systems of taxation and their histories, as well as that of the history of our nation. Since the inception of the federal income tax, wealth has NEVER been a significant factor in determining the level at which income is taxed. Never. Even the modern day estate tax which was enacted along with the income tax, was a REVENUE provision and had NOTHING to do with "equality." And the tax rates ranged from a maximum of 10% down to a minimum of 1% -- hardly confiscatory. That, I would point out, was in 1916, after TR's "trustbusting" episode. Income taxation is based on income, which is not the same as, or even similar to, wealth. At no point has "equality" been a stated objective of our income tax system by people who are actually knowledgeable about. It is essentially a recent left-wing invention. What IS and always HAS BEEN important is "fairness." As a general principle of taxation, fairness has long been considered essential. In the case of income taxes, the fairness requirement is generally considered to be met if a tax is based on the ability to pay. That obviously leaves a great deal of gray area, but that is generally the requirement of a progressive system that is fair. If you want to argue about what is and isn't fair, that's fine. But our tax system was never about equality. It was about fairly raising the necessary revenue. As to the Founders you can undoubtedly find various letters and comments discussing whether equality should somehow be enforced, but essentially ALL of them ultimately believed that a man should stand to benefit from his own "industry" -- which is also consistent with the principles set out by Adam Smith at that point (even though liberals will typically mangle the interpretations of his comments to support your positions). These were not people who believed a person that didn't contribute should receive some benefits. You don't work, you don't eat. These people believed that. They would NEVER have approved of the federal government allocated large sums of money for education, for welfare programs, for social security and Medicare, etc. Jefferson, in particular, would be OUTRAGED at what the Left has done. He did not believe the current generation should bind future generations even for short periods of time except in the most serious of circumstances (Read that as "War"). The Founders had no interest in confiscating the work product of the nation's people. And certainly not for the absurd purpose of "equalization" of wealth. This is just total made up bullshit. You don't know shit about this subject, as usual.

To: combjelly who wrote (851064)	4/27/2015 8:17:44 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578704

Since the founding of the Republic, it has always an aspect of taxing the wealthy at a higher rate. There is no federal wealth tax at any rate. Income is taxed (and the wealthy pay a higher rate), but that is hardly a "since the founding for the Republic thing" There wasn't any federal income tax until the Civil War and it was eliminated in 1868. There wasn't a "continual" income tax until 1913. Hardly the era of the founding of the Republic. In the early days of the republic the federal government got by on sales taxes on tariffs (then they dropped the internal sales taxes and just relied on the tariffs until the Civil War). The rich (either by income or wealth) didn't pay a higher rate.