Posted on 09/17/2021 5:05:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez donned an elegant gown with the slogan "Tax the Rich" painted on the back at the Met Gala in New York, where guests selected by Vogue's Anna Wintour ponied up around $35,000 a pop for tickets. The scene was reminiscent of Tom Wolfe's "radical chic" -- though rather than being guests of the well-heeled in Park Avenue duplexes, today's revolutionaries own luxury condos and drive around in government-subsidized electric cars that most Americans could never afford.
My first question, though, is: Who doesn't want to "tax the rich"? Judging from my social-media feed, there seems to be a growing segment of people under the impression that the wealthy pay little or nothing in taxes. When you ask Americans if they support a wealth tax, a majority support the idea. One recent poll found that 80% of voters were annoyed that corporations and the wealthy don't pay their "fair share."
Polls rarely ask these people what a "fair share" looks like. Is a quarter of someone's earnings enough? A third? Because the rich have been shouldering an increasingly larger share of the cost of government. The United States already has one of the most progressive tax systems in the free world. Those who make over $207,350 now pay 35% in income tax. Those who make $518,400 or more pay a 37% income-tax rate. At some point, taxation should be considered theft.
Despite perceptions, the highest-income strata of taxpayers are the only ones who pay a larger share of taxes than their share of income. In 2018, the top 1% of income earners made nearly 21% of all income but paid 40% of all federal income taxes. The top 10% earned 48% of the income and paid 71% of all federal income taxes.
On the other hand, in 2021, Americans making less than $75,000 are projected to have, on average, no tax liability after deductions and credits. The average income-tax rate for those making between $75,000 and $100,000 is expected to be 1.8%. More than 61% of Americans -- around 107 million households -- owed zero federal income taxes for the year 2020.
You don't have to agree with me that (over)taxing the wealthy undermines job creation and growth, or that a tax system that relies so heavily on the fortunes of the few creates more cronyism in Washington and more volatility everywhere else. But the idea that the rich don't pay their "fair share" is absurd.
At this point in the conversation, progressives will set aside their calls for a "wealth tax" and start complaining about capital gains. Here, we simply have a point of disagreement: Ocasio-Cortez would see investment profits in the hands of Bernie Sanders, head of the Senate budget committee. I would rather see them in venture-capital projects and private-equity funds that churn investment dollars and boost technology and jobs. Progressives grouse about accumulation of wealth and then want policies that dissuade risk.
Those who believe what I do will be accused of being "market fundamentalists" or beholden to the wealthy. Progressives -- the kind that like to hang out at Met Galas -- believe everyone is as class-obsessed as they are. I don't give one wit about the wealthy. In fact, I hope today's entrepreneurs are tomorrow's new rich. We know they will be -- without compelled redistribution. How many voters do you think know that nearly 70% of the Forbes 400 richest Americans are self-made? Or that the share of the self-made wealthy had risen from 40% in the 1980s to nearly 70% by the 2010s? How many people who have fallen for the scaremongering worries of "inequality" -- another leading reason for the wealth taxation -- understand, as economist Mark Perry recently pointed out, that the middle-class isn't "shrinking" because it's getting poorer, but rather because of a long-term trend in upper-middle class growth? Ocasio-Cortez's entire philosophy is a zero-sum fallacy.
No, progressive taxation isn't socialism. But the policy justifications made for tax hikes these days certainly are. Ocasio-Cortez is a fraud, of course, but it's her retrograde economic theorizing that's the real problem. And in this age of populism, increasing numbers of Americans are accepting Marxist conceptions of American life, in which the successful are parasites and everyone else is a victim of their greed.
The reality is that no politician is going to advocate raising middle-class income taxes, despite the ever-increasing cost of government. There is only the rich to tax. Consequently, it's become easier to pass massive expansions of the state. Everyone expects someone else to foot the bill -- either future generations or their wealthier neighbors. Meanwhile, taxation has gone from being a means of funding communal needs and projects to a means of technocratic wealth reallocation. This is no way to run a country.
The lefties control the chess pieces this time.
The old reasons why people who get up and drive to work 5 days a week subscribed to the notion that you can’t soak the rich too much, is because our jobs would go overseas where the super rich can exploit cheap labor AND low taxes and still be super rich.
But right now, we have a huge labor shortage. Most of them are for lower scale service-sector jobs, but that doesn’t mean that the notion of jobs drying up isn’t more far-fetched.
For the few who are principled, or who have enough empathy to wonder what it would be like to become very very successful and get punished for it, we don’t need selfish reasons. But now that many of our super-rich are lefty bat-brained partisans, I personally am finding it harder and harder to empathize.
Like dims/RINOs care about the peasants.
Dim/RINO politicians only care about themselves.
Most of the really rich don’t primarily receive their wealth as active income. And they have long had their interests game the system to minimize taxes while maximizing competitive position against the less the fortunate.
That said, government should be about a quarter the size it is presently, with low taxes all around.
Tell that to a stupid leftist and wait for the confused look, it’s priceless and happens every single time. I cannot understand why they cannot understand anything other than catchy bumper sticker slogans. Very sad and truly dangerous.
All busenesses including small businesses pass their taxes on to the consumer. That is factual believe it or not.
~~~
“fact”
If you run a business in a competitive market, and your competitors are not raising their prices, you could have some problems raising yours.
If you have more people not paying taxes, it becomes an US vs Them argument. You always have the majority of the people in your favor when you claim we should “Tax the Rich”. The Democrats love to divide the country. That’s how they maintain power at the expense of the health of the nation.
The scene was reminiscent of Tom Wolfe’s “radical chic”
I don’t see Tom Wolfe becoming irrelevant anytime soon.
The stats and percentages quoted have been fairly consistent over time. The top tax returns by AGI may earn a disproportionate amount of AGI but pay and even more disproportionate amount of personal income tax. The "beauty" of this set-up, is that any across-the-board tax cut will mathematically "go to the rich."
And so on.
But get these people alone, in a well-lit corner of the Met, and ask them "well, what about a top 45% marginal rate? Will that make you happy?" Keep it going until they smile and applaud. Write the percentage down, and ask again next year.
What you'll find, is that they will NEVER be happy. It's like the pandemic....first they weren't happy with 2 weeks to flatten the curve, so then it was masks, then social distancing, then close the schools, then close the businesses, then "don't protest the lockdowns but you can burn federal buildings because ya know, hate is bad" then the election, then EUAs, then "you won't need to wear a mask", then mandates, then "you need a booster" and so on.
The reality is that people get hungry eventually after a meal. There is NO tax rate that will ultimately satisfy these people. Pointing out the data is good, because it helps convert centrists. But make no mistake...the kool-aid drinkers will never be satisfied.
“The average income-tax rate for those making between $75,000 and $100,000 is expected to be 1.8%.”
I highly doubt this. Average people making that much pay almost nothing in taxes?
I’m sure there’s a small number with such high deductions. But average?
Maybe it supposed to be 18%?
“And they have long had their interests game the system to minimize taxes”
Can’t agree that those who use every legal means to minimize their taxes are “gaming the system.” Congress with presidential signature create tax laws in order to fund the bloated government they have created and to use these tax laws to order society. Want more of it, tax it less; want less of it, over-tax it !! Utilizing the laws to minimize your taxes is not “gaming,” it’s being smart and one can argue it’s doing exactly what congress wants to happen when they pass these laws. And yes, that includes Bill Clinton writing off the value of his used clothing!!
Heard yesterday that that top 1% of earners pay 40% of the taxes, include state, local, county, sales tax etc and in some states they are well over 60% or more! Then, upon death, they swoop in and take more of the money and possessions they had left after they already paid taxes on that money and the money they used to acquire their property! Gotta wonder, when is “enough” enough?
Love how the “tax the rich” folks and the “fair sharers” will NEVER define exactly what a “fair share” is - I guess the answer is whatever they say it is!
I’m under no delusion that it would ever come to pass, but the only taxation that ensures paying your “fair share” is to dump the current system which allows congress to pick winners and losers and enact the “Fair Tax” as has been proposed.
The thing leftists absolutely ignore is that massive government, fiat money, and the social engineering they desire actually creates permanent class division and massive wealth disparity
That’s not gaming the system as I was referring to it. It is the big corporations and very wealthy who buy the pols and laws that tilt to their interests.
Go have another cup of coffee—or maybe lay off the stuff for a day or so—before misfiring your rants here.
That 1.8% figure caught my eye also as I have been in that income range for a couple of years as I ramp down my salary in prep for retirement. 15% - 18% is more likely the effective tax rate for that salary range.
What the Liberals never consider is that business owners routinely put profits back into their business, to grow, hire, train and remain competitive.
It's a daily crap shoot for them. They gamble with their money and their future every single day...both in good times and bad.
What private individual would do that on a daily basis with no guarantee of success?
No one who is broke EVER gave me a job!!
Well agree with that premise..... but I read into your post that using tax laws to your advantage was “gaming.” Now, when you refer to people buying congressmen to tweak the tax laws to their advantage certainly qualifies but remember it takes a majority of both houses and a willing president to make that law. A “fair tax” would eliminate this BS, but as it takes manipulative power away from these congress folks it will never come to pass. Thanks for the suggestion for more coffee !!
Some rich person paid for her to go to this event. And guarantee you they’ll use it as a tax write off.
“What you’ll find, is that they will NEVER be happy.”
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Leftists are intrinsically unhappy.
I would suggest (latent or suppressed) they are hateful.
They mask their hate in good intentions. No one who gets past the age of toddler doesn’t learn to do this. I hate to quote Cosby, but the child who is caught reaching in the cookie jar will say “but I was getting for you”.
They will never be happy until everyone gets a very very small but equal piece of every pie. Small, because anyone with an IQ north of room temperature knows that no one will produce or innovate anything, and all pies will shrink.
The left will never admit any sort of organizational desire for the destruction of western civilization, but on the individual level, they have nothing but contempt for everyone. The “climate change” movement is specifically anti-human.
“what would be enough for these people?”
Frame it from their perspective.
Government is their god.
Abortion is their blood sacrifice.
Taxes are their tithe.
Science is their dogma.
Vaccines are a genuflection.
“Income tax” is a scam to place the tax burden on mainly the middle class.
I’m financially well off and with creative accounting I have the ability to pay less income tax than my employees who make $100k. Not percent. The actual tax amount.
I have wealthier friends who do more aggressive accounting and brag how they pay nearly nothing in income tax. While enjoying every luxury known to man.
The only way to effectively tax the wealthy is a tax on luxury properties. Nomatter who or what entity on the planet owns it, the same tax amount is due and can’t be deducted.
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