The Rich Get Richer (So what, pray tell, is wrong with that statement?)

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | June 6, 2006 | Editorial

[wita]

A society always gets more of whatever it subsidizes, whether it's corn, tobacco or the idle rich. And subsidizing spoiled heiresses at the expense of, well, everyone else is the goal of those members of Congress who are pushing to greatly reduce, or even repeal, the federal estate tax. Despite reams of data that show that the estate tax only touches the top 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers, and despite the fact that the Mom and Pop businesses and family farms of the sort that earn our sympathy simply are not affected by this tax, the repeal has already passed the House and was near approval in the Senate last year before Hurricane Katrina disrupted everything. If the government took the money and burned it, then one could argue that the tax on estates worth more than $2 million was just punitive class warfare. But because the money pays for things that benefit everyone, the government's 90-year history of taxing the transfer of large pots of money from one generation to the next is both reasonable and fair.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

You have to remind people that Robin Hood took money from the overly oppressive government system and returned it to the people who earned it.

[MosesKnows]

The Rich Get Richer

Is there some rule that the rich are suspposed to get poorer?

The rich are rich and the poor are poor because of the same reason. They both keep doing the things that make them what they are.

Capitalism and Communism stand at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this: The communist, seeing the rich man and his fine home, says: "No man should have so much." The capitalist, seeing the same thing, says: "All men should have as much." Adams Phelps - Author

[A.A. Cunningham]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts

---

Article Last Updated: 6/05/2006 11:31 PM

The rich get richer: Estate tax repeal would hurt (nearly) everyone

Salt Lake Tribune

A society always gets more of whatever it subsidizes, whether it's corn, tobacco or the idle rich.
   And subsidizing spoiled heiresses at the expense of, well, everyone else is the goal of those members of Congress who are pushing to greatly reduce, or even repeal, the federal estate tax.
   Despite reams of data that show that the estate tax only touches the top 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers, and despite the fact that the Mom and Pop businesses and family farms of the sort that earn our sympathy simply are not affected by this tax, the repeal has already passed the House and was near approval in the Senate last year before Hurricane Katrina disrupted everything.
   If the government took the money and burned it, then one could argue that the tax on estates worth more than $2 million was just punitive class warfare. But because the money pays for things that benefit everyone, the government's 90-year history of taxing the transfer of large pots of money from one generation to the next is both reasonable and fair.
   The main problem with killing the estate tax, which the Senate could vote to do this week, is that it would preserve great wealth for those who were born to it at the expense of people who could, given the chance, earn their own.
   A government starved of the $1 trillion that an estate tax repeal would cost over a decade would be hard-pressed to provide the educational, social, transportation and security infrastructure necessary for the talented to catch up to the lucky. The services it did keep up with would be more likely to be financed with debt, soaking up the capital the next great innovator would need to get his concern off the ground.
   Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire, got super rich building upon a national foundation created, in significant measure, by taxing previous generations of super rich through progressive income and estate taxes. He has wisely dispatched his father, William G. Gates Sr., to join one of the few people who is in his financial league, Berkshire Hathaway magnate Warren Buffett, in opposition to repealing the estate tax.
   Gates and company know where their money came from, and where it ought to go.
   
   

  

[B4Ranch]

>>William G. Gates Sr., to join one of the few people who is in his financial league, Berkshire Hathaway magnate Warren Buffett, in opposition to repealing the estate tax.

Gates and company know where their money came from, and where it ought to go.<<

The nice thing about being rich is that you can give your money to a charity or even the government. Yes, they will both accept donations from individuals and corporations.