Posted on 11/15/2017 6:48:52 AM PST by Kaslin
A new study released by the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., headlines what they see as shocking news that in America some people are much wealthier than others.
Some findings of the study, entitled "Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of Us," are:
-- "The three wealthiest people in the United States -- Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett -- now own more wealth than the entire bottom half of the American population."
-- The 400 billionaires on the Forbes 400 list "now own more wealth than the bottom 64 percent of the American population."
-- "One in five US households ... have zero or negative net worth. Over 30 percent of black households and 27 percent of Latino households have zero or negative net worth."
The message that IPS wishes to convey here is that there's a connection between wealth at the top and dismal economic circumstances at the bottom. That is, the poor are poor because the rich are rich.
Their proposed solution for narrowing the gap between rich and poor follows this premise. The way to make the poor less poor, in their view, is to make the rich less rich. And, of course, they propose to do this with government power. "By taxing our wealthiest, we could raise significant revenues and then invest these funds to expand wealth-building opportunities across the economy."
If we accept the questionable assumption that higher taxes on the wealthy would raise "significant revenues," who exactly, according to their plan, would invest these funds to produce all these new opportunities?
Those with the greatest investment skills are those on the Forbes 400 list, who the IPS see as the problem and who they want to punish for being successful.
So in all likelihood, it's a government bureaucrat that they want to put in charge of making these brilliant "wealth-building" investments.
But bureaucrats would not be bureaucrats if they knew how to invest and create wealth. We've been through this before -- the list of failed government projects is long. Recall most recently the Solyndra scandal -- the failed solar panel firm backed by the Obama administration -- leaving taxpayers on the hook for $535 million in federal guarantees.
Who are these billionaires on the Forbes 400 list? Joshua Rauh of the Stanford University School of Business and Steven Kaplan of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business studied the list.
In 2011, 32 percent came from wealthy families, compared to 60 percent in 1982. And in 2011, 69 percent started their own businesses compared to 40 percent in 1982. So these are increasingly individuals who created their own wealth.
And the fact is, the wealthy already pay the lion's share of the nation's taxes, and this has increased over time.
According to the Tax Foundation, in 2014, those whose incomes were in the top one percent paid 39.5 percent of all taxes. In 1982, the top one percent paid 19 percent of all taxes. Raising taxes more on the highest income earners will benefit tax lawyers and lobbyists and do little for the rest of us.
Envy doesn't create wealth. Freedom and character do. How about we focus less on punishing those who succeed and more on helping those who are not realizing their potential?
Harvard economist Martin Feldstein estimates that cutting corporates taxes would raise national income by $500 billion -- $3,500 per household. I say we cut them even more for businesses opening in distressed communities.
Let's admit that our massive welfare state has been a disaster. I have long been for allowing low-income Americans to stop paying the payroll tax and instead use these funds to invest in a personal retirement account to build personal wealth.
These are just starters. We should be looking for ideas to bring up the bottom. Not dragging down the top.
Excellent article.
The poor are usually poor because of their CHOICES and BEHAVIOR. I am not rich because of my CHOICES and BEHAVIOR. Had I chosen better and behaved differently I would be rich*.
*Rich is a subjective term; anyone who has twice what you have qualifies.
It was a good article until the part about letting the poor stop paying taxes to invest in a retirement program. I don’t think it would work.
Get ready to be flamed. I was flamed on a thread last week after commenting that people made poor life choices.
If you took all of the money from the top 400 and gave it to the poorest 50% of our citizens...... in 20 years it would all be back where it is..... and we would have sold a gazillion tennis shoes, tv’s, cases of beer, tatoos and moon pies....
I have heard that before. I believe it too.
Most of the “poor” in the US are poor because of:
Choices they make
Behaviors they exhibit
Lack of proper upbringing (no work ethic, lack of value of education even through high school, lack of ambition to better one’s self)
Lower intelligence
A person can have a limited number of these, over come them and still have a fruitful happy life.
Subsidizing these human attributes has tremendously hurt the American culture and society. Letting people with these attributes fail is much better for society.
[ It was a good article until the part about letting the poor stop paying taxes to invest in a retirement program. I don’t think it would work. ]
Most poor i know consider Social Security and medicare as their “retirement programs” I don’t think any one of them has anything approaching a long term financial plan...
Agreed
Forty plus decades of college education led my Marxists, and why would anyone then be surprised at the oh so common and true-believer notion that “of course the poor are poor because the rich are too rich”.
I am far richer than these three combined for reasons that they choose (so far) not to respond to...
Philippians 4:19 Amplified Bible (AMP) 19 And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
From the beginning of my economic life I have assumed that the existence of rich people gives me more opportunity to build wealth.
They were my source of investable capital, which I could never get from poor people. So I sold them real estate and they paid me commissions. I invested in their bank startups and sold out when they did. I invested in real estate, benchmarking off what they did, just on a lower scale.
If not for rich people I would not have retired at 60, and wouldn’t be retired now at 68.
I love rich people.
You just described most of my family.
And they all think Hubby and I are rich.
Vilfredo Pareto (1848 - 1923)
An Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist, and philosopher, now also known for the 80/20 rule, named after him as the Pareto principle.
80% of wealth is owned by 20% of the population.
This was true in the 1900’s and is still true today. It has even been tested in controlled studies where within a controlled group, resources were equally divided. After a period of time, the distribution of resources returned to the 80-20 distribution.
I missed that thread, or I'd have chimed in with you. If I'd made a few minor alterations in my choices I'd be rich instead of comfy. Same applies to those who are poor without unfortunate circumstances (yes, some people are unlucky through none of their own fault, but more are behaviorally deficient).
People are poor because they are stupid, lazy, and have no valuable skills. We could reduce poverty by killing off the poorest 10 percent every 5 years. That will give them some incentive to work harder and become less of a burden on society. This started as a joke but the more I think about it...
Are you always so arrogant?
I remember a certain wise man saying something like “the poor will always be with you”. I think his name was Jesus something or other.
That makes me think they can only be helped so much, then they may have to help themselves.
[ You just described most of my family.
And they all think Hubby and I are rich. ]
To be poor in America you have to be incompetent.
If people from 3rd world shitholes can come here and make it via hard work, there is no excuse for people born here other than crappy families enforcing bad choices.
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