"It's easy to talk about punishing wealthy people for their supposed greed. But when you talk about taxing the rich, you're talking about taxing capital. And ...
taxing capital results in damage to more than just the wealthy. In other words, you can't punish the wealthy without also punishing the middle class.
That's because the wealthy invest their capital to create new jobs, most of which accrue to those not wealthy.
Many mistakenly view private-sector businesses as social institutions that spontaneously spring up to provide benefits and salaries to working people. B....
But it is people, often upper-middle-class people, who start those businesses by investing their own risk capital.
This risk capital must bring these entrepreneurs a reasonable return on their investment or they won't be willing to risk their money again.
If they are unwilling to take those risks, then they won't invest their money and create new jobs and new products, and those potential employees and consumers of those products are the ones who will suffer.
A perfect example of that in our political system is the increase in the capital gains tax rates and the shortening of the allowable years of depreciation. Both of these "reform" measures were enacted by Congress for the ostensible purpose of taking away the unfair advantage of the wealthy. The result was to cripple the real estate market. I don't need to tell you that the negative impact of that affected all economic levels of our society, and arguably the middle class and the poor, more than the rich. Another example....
of a policy enacted in the spirit of class warfare (i.e., one that was designed to deprive the wealthy of unfair advantages) was the luxury tax on the yachts in order to appear to be the champions of the lower and middle classes, Congress virtually ruined an industry as people simply stopped buying yachts. They went offshore for them. Tens of thousands of jobs for working people, not the wealthy, were lost in the name of compassion. Liberals refuse to even acknowledge this because it is such a taxtbook repudiation of their politics of class envy.
. . . . ."
avory says: I seperated lines of a paragraph or two for hopeful ease in reading.
Registered: 04/06/00
Posts: 24616
Loc: SLO County, CA - 66.122.77.142
I can see what my problem is after reading this stuff. I have never viewed taxes as a "punishment". They are a necessary evil. I believe we owe our fellow man food, medicine and shelter. I am also a community isolationist when it comes to caring for others in that I believe each town/county can handle this position more efficiently than State or Federal can.
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"A lot of things were acceptable--until we stopped accepting it." -- Al Sharpton '12
