|
difficult to assess the wealth of even the few (150,000) of the most wealthy in the US, (even more difficult in many other nations, with less computerized revenue collection systems and more banking privacy protections for the wealthy).
That said, there's also the issue of "fairness" for those unfortunate super-rich people who made foolish decisions with their wealth that year and actually LOST net worth, (real negative incomes from their investments, yeah, I know, "poor rich folks!"...we all cry a tear!)
Until the Second World War, our nation didn't really have a massive national debt problem. After WW II, Americans had no problem continuing upon with a taxation system that required much more from the few high earners, and relatively little percentages in all taxation from the middle class. And, I'm talking ALL taxation upon middle class workers. There were fewer states with sales taxes, and sales taxes in those states that had them were at 2-3% on a limited number of goods and even fewr services, (car repairs, monopolistic phone service, gasoline, etc.)
This system gradually shifted between 1945 to 2003 or so, with the tax percentages on the big earners going down, and the taxes assessed upon the working middle class creeping or even LEAPING up. Real Estate Taxes, state income taxes, state sales taxes, all up, all more pervasive, all with fewer exempted, all forms of taxes increased upon the middle-class while federal income taxes upon the high-earners went down, and the pain felt by the high-earners with the other state and local taxes was minimal, compared to the drop in their federal income that was taken in taxes. A drop of 20% of the top bracker upon a million dollar earned income was about $100,000 LESS and the relatively "incidental" sales and real estate taxes of those same earners had increased by maybe $30,000...net benefit to high-earners.
Taxing those with wealth is a great idea, but many of them gained that wealth by inheritance, by luck, by pluck, by cheating others, by just plain being in the right place at the right time, selling their house or stock at the top of the market, collecting antiques, whatever.
Don't get me wrong, I think the rich need to pay more for their last 10 years of prosperity, while the working and others lost ground.
What I would propose is some sort of a 10-year review of income and current wealth...(for those in the USA, anyway where every income has been reported, )... where we actually look at what those with wealth have earned in the last 10 years, since Bush added 6-7 to the national debt and brought the world to near calamitous economic ruin. Let's smoke out the speculators, the hedge fund traders, the bankers, the lawyers, the insurance giants, etc. Let's make them pay! I'm not asking them to give up their lifestyle, they can keep 50% of what they made in those 10 years. Let's just go after the few thousand that put us into this mess and make sure they get to feel some ALMOST pain! This might include T.Boone Pickens, or anyone else who speculated on oil, Warren Buffet, who runs a predatory anti-competitive railroad empire, and every one else who scoffed themselves up a few tens of millions without the benefit of giving back to our nation anything of real value. This would exempt movie stars, sports athletes, etc, who actually have a skill we are willing to pay for. But the scum and the opportunists, (those most connected to the Republican and Tea Party), will have to pay for the mess they got us in!
|