Would all these people who want a progressive tax system still favor it if they were smart enough to make $$?

Question

Taxes on net assets, 75% tax on those who make more then 1 million and 50% on those who make more then 100,000....I hear this all.

America is the land of opportunity not the land of opportunity but we will tax it away from you.

Why do people favor wealth redistribution? Taxing the wealthy a much higher rate is just like me going to cash my check and handing it directly to someone who doesnt make as much. How is that fair?

My guess is people just hate the fact they arent wealthy and are jealous of others' success and want to take it away from them, thats not American!

Answer 1

Trickle-down economics isn't working. Never did and never will. The fallacy of the Bush/Cheney Junta was belief in the Trickle-down but borrow to assert their leadership. That massive debt was a tax. You might not be able to comprehend that the weak dollar and massive debt was a tax, but it is and this Dubya tax is a much bigger bite than any VAT or any net assets.

Nobody is going to buy into the VAT idea. VAT would require a national ID. Net Asset, I don't know enough about it. But, tax cuts, with trickle-down hopes and massive debt is an evil tax.

Answer 2

Rich pay more in taxes than the poor?  WTF?  Are you intetionally lying?

Answer 3

Unless you have your head in the sand, you can see what the tax cuts have done to this country.  Taxes are what pays for the roads, the courts, fire departments, education, food safety, you know all the things that we take for granted. And the rich use more of the government services proportionately. And yes, if i was well off I would be happy to pay a progressive tax. Even if I was in the 75% bracket. That is the cost to live in a civil society. Put it this way, if I was rich enough to have a $500,000.00 dollar car, a private jet or a luxury yacht, I'd like to have safe roads, airways and waterways. That's what taxes pay for and much more.

Answer 4

Beats me.  It appears that most people think they pay taxes, despite the reality that about half of US households don't pay any federal income tax at all.  The fact that people talk about a flat tax tells you that folks don't have a realistic idea of who's paying the taxes.  I think most people think they're an above-average tax payer, kind of like the folks in Lake Wobegone.

I think the republic is basically already lost, just on this one point.  Karl Marx said no democracy could last beyond the time that the people just voted to give themselves money for nothing.  We're there.  There's NOBODY who is going to have the moral courage to stop it.

Answer 5

I am constantly amazed at the number of people who do not understand the tax structure in our country - and the consequences of that tax structure.

The fact of the matter is that the top 33% of wage earners pay 80% of the taxes.

Another issue is that the more you tax the rich - the less money is availible for economically productive investments.  

This is where 'trickle down' economic theory excells at creating stable economic growth.  By creating an enviornment where the 'rich' find investing their money in capital investment is in their best interests - you create a huge surge of investment in business which translates directly into more and better jobs for everybody else.