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Originally Posted by TheBull  And this is the fault of the government? The beauty of America is that you CAN become wealthy and even super rich is YOU work hard enough. Why should you be punished for it. |
As I've said before, tax policy isn't about blaming, assigning fault, or punishing anyone. It's about raising money to pay for the society we've all created, good or bad. There's no cosmic accountant somewhere, assigning blame and cost-accounting for auto pollution, budget deficits, poverty, dependence on oil, etc.
The suggestion that wealth is created
solely by individual hard work (i.e., labor) is a myth. Otherwise, many other countries would be wealthier than America. All around the world, there are smart people who work as hard as Bill Gates, but they haven't accumulated billions. What's the difference? Probably many different factors, such as:
* "luck" (i.e., being at the right place at the right time);
* government financed infrastructure and technological advances, such as the internet (who do you think developed those space-aged polymers that make the Ginsu knife possible?
);
* economic policies, including but not limited to tax policy;
* individual and corporate contributions that are not accounted for in our wonderful, but imperfect, system of economic trade (e.g., Xerox was responsible for the first GUI, but Gates and Jobs were able to "borrow" the idea and exploit it to make billions);
* government and private industry that are, for the most part and relatively speaking, free from corruption (which is a function of everyone in society enforcing a set of ethical standards);
* the list goes on...
Why do we perceive the Middle East to be strategically important to our national interests? Oil. Yes, we all benefit from using oil, but who benefits most economically? I'm not saying that's why the wealthy should pay more, just illustrating that our system cannot accurately assign the costs associated with creating economic wealth.
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Originally Posted by TheBull Massive budget deficits have nothing to do with the rich, or the poor for that matter. It has to do with irresponsible spending by the government and no accountability for that spending. |
Exactly, and we're all responsible for paying for the government spending. I agree government should spend less, but that's a different argument than how we pay for the spending that's already occurred.
How is it "punishing" the wealthy or being unfair to continue the same tax laws, i.e., "rules of the game," that have been in place since 1916
and under which the super-wealthy have accumulated their wealth?