Posted on 06/29/2011 9:04:14 PM PDT by conservativebuckeye
Ben Stein was on with Laura Ingraham, who was filling in for BOR. He was on there advocating massive tax increases on the wealthy. He claimed that the greatest economic growth in our nation's history occurred when taxes on the wealthy were highest. I always thought he was a smart guy, but I guess I was wrong. Did he sleep through the 80s?
He could write a check to BHO if he is so sure taxes should be raised. If he gave 95% of his money (gross) I’m sure he could stand up and lead the rest of the “rich”.
TwoSwords is correct, the elites don’t pay much in the way of taxes. It’s the middle class who bears the tax burden, and the Chinese. The chinese (and other countries to a lesser extent) have been subsidizing the artificial U.S. Government way of life for years. Let’s not forget we’re running TRILLIONS in defecits, and that it’s being paid for by foreigners.
Sure Ben, lets just drive the last remaining hope for our recovery, people who still have some wealth right out of the country.
” Just like corporations, they simply pass on the cost of doing business ..”
And does that account for many Europeans having relocated to Monte Carlo to avoid confiscatory taxation in their own countries? Or is all that just semantics also? How about all the tax havens in the Caribbean - window dressing?
The extreme rich put their money into trusts. The tax laws are very different. Reminds me of the 80’s. Maybe you weren’t there.
“He claimed that the greatest economic growth in our nation’s history occurred when taxes on the wealthy were highest”
Taxes that no one actually paid because of all the deductions that were available at the time. Very few people back then actually qualified for those high tax brackets.
Taxation is a global problem. There are too many people everywhere who think someone owes them something, whether it be the peasants chanting for bread and circuses, or the elites, wanting monuments and mausoleums built to them for their tax sheltered “benevolence.”
Less government on every level would result in a better state for everyone.
Stein wants a flat tax really, and was playing devils advocate to Laura so she could kick the ideas out the park...he is doing his job and Laura better do hers, just as we better do ours and vote a true conservative fiscal candidate into office...
He was channeling his daddy, Nixon’s economic advisor. How did that turn out?
His hypocrisy is that he’ll advocate it and use himself, rich, as an argument. But he’ll then write on his “diary” at American Spectator how he’s so hurting and how much everything costs, etc.
All while owning about 3-4 homes, staying in 4 star hotels, etc.
He’s one of those 50/50 guys.
Exactly! A logical fallacy known as "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc."
Regards,
“You miss the whole point by misunderstanding our tax system is on earned income by wage earners...”
OK Turborules, you’re the genius. Give me the answer to my question, why have so many high earners sought ways to avoid confiscatory taxes, whether the Caribbean or Monte Carlo or wherever? You must be a liberal.
This is true. But it is not true that it happened when "tax rates" were the highest.
Thank you very much! I saw a 2 min clip, but I knew there was something missing from it. Thanks again. I’ll watch it in a few minutes.
I have to say though, that from the small clip I did hear, ala “We had growth in the 40’s. 50’s and 60’s” mentions nothing of the fact that at that time, nothing was similar to today. The U.S. was on a gold standard, much of the industrialized world’s manufacturing base has been bombed into oblivion, and we weren’t facing the regulation stranglehold on productivity we are now.
The clip I heard said only that high taxes weren’t correlated with stunted economic growth, but there appears to be a lot more to the conversation than that one segment. Thank you again for the link!
It also ignores a plethora of other factors that constitute a greater economic picture.
Also in the 40s 50s & 60s you didn’t have a lot of 2-income families. As more and more women have entered the workplace, there are more workers paying taxes but wages are probably lower too. Laura correctly points out that we have a spending problem, mainly due to entitlements. If they were raising taxes to pay down the debt that would be one thing, but they just want more money for more handouts.
. . . . Stein graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in 1961 along with classmate journalist Carl Bernstein; actress Goldie Hawn (class of 1963) was two years behind. Actor Sylvester Stallone was a schoolmate at Montgomery Hills Junior High School. . . .
I think Ben has had a brain fart.
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