I can’t wait to see how President Obama’s taxing of the rich fails as it already has in New Jersey, see here. It seems class warfare probably isn’t going to “equalize” monetary status among individuals. When you penalize the wealthy for creating wealth, it seems they strangely take their wealth elsewhere. Go figure.
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Taxes are lower than any time in 50 years and we’re broke. You tax the rich for the same reason Jesse James said he robbed banks–that’s where the money is.
When did we have the largest middle class? 1950s and early ’60s when the top tax rate was 90%. It makes the ultra-rich invest in slow money that enriches everyone because in fast money, the govt. gets most of it. The ultra rich still get richer with an Eisenhower-era tax rate, but they do so more slowly.
ALL (and I mean ALL) governments redistribute wealth through taxation. Ever since Reagan we’ve been redistributing it upward so that the middle class has all but vanished and we have a huge concentration of wealth at the top 1%. This kills democracy. As justice Brandeis said, “We can have democracy or we can have great concentrations of wealth in the hands of the few, but not both.”
Social mobility happens better when there is a large middle class, too.
Also, you don’t have huge deficits–which started with Reaganonomics.
My fear is not that Obama will tax the rich. My fear is that he won
‘t–he’ll keep following Bush-era economics just like he’s kept following Bush-era imperialist foreign policy.
No socialism here, just capitalism with slightly more padding on the chains for the wage slaves.