Taxing the rich

[ThomWV]

The rich tell us we should not tax them because it is their untaxed money that creates jobs for all of us. We are told that the less their money is taxed the more jobs are created. But their taxes have been lowered and joblessness increases.

When the rich do not create jobs it is the duty of Government to tax them and use the funds to fill, or create if the need be, the jobs that the rich did not.

Every expenditure of Government greater than the interest payment on the national debt creates jobs. Jobs generate incomes. Incomes fuel commerce. Commerce is the backbone of our, and indeed the world's, economy.

[geckosfeet]

1. If they are taxed they will find more creative ways to shelter their money -

like investing in infrastructure and creating jobs. If it is simpler and cheaper to just sit on their pile'o'cash, that's what they will do.

[Aviation Pro]

2. Better idea, take all their money and combine it with the bailout money....

...to pay off all mortgages, student loans and other credit vehicles.

This will give them their needed incentive to pull themselves up by the bootstraps again.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. But all the rich people on the T.V. machine keep telling me

they need tax cuts. Of course, they are all rich so I should believe them, right?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. A crazy thought..... imagine for a minute if rather than spread

money all over the place as has been suggested by the bailouts and so forth... that we paid into almost everyone's retirements the amount that would bring them back to where they were before the downward spiral. I wonder how that approach would have affected peoples' spending, and saving habits... and then, as the markets recovered, and as their retirements recovered to even higher levels than before, the excess would be, could be tapped out and put back into the general economy, say as a stimulus package or whatever the government deemed sensible.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

6. That assumes (wrongly) that the government consists of

We the people. It doesn't. It consists entirely of rich people who will always do what benefits rich people. The only reason we have any social safety net at all is because of the invention of the guillotine.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. I guess it would cure a rather nasty sinus condition... I'll try anything

right about now... looking in Amazon for one as we speak. :)

[JDPriestly]

16. Good idea. Let the money trickle up for a change.

[Political Heretic]

5. How is some unnamed pro football players multimillion dollar income creating jobs?

This is what I've always wondered about that argument.

If someone starts talking about all the people who have jobs thanks to the fact that their is a football league, how does that have anything to do with what some football player is paid?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Because its invested which provides capital for businesses

I find amusing the notion that the idle rich just sit on their money. Its invested. As such it provides capital for other things.

We should explore properly progressive tax structures and other way of ensuring fairness, but lets stay within the realm of facts...the rich do not stockpile cash in their homes or any other such fantasy

[JDPriestly]

17. The rich investing in hedge funds and derivatives instead of

in industry that pays ordinary people good wages is precisely how we got in this mess.

Rich people got tax cuts and invested their money in hedge funds and other instruments that bet against our economy, that bet against our getting high enough wages to pay off our mortgages, that bet against the American people. It's those rich people and their tax cuts that caused the current crisis/recession/depression/horrible situation. I do not trust rich people to set aside their greed and do the right thing.

Had the rich received their tax cuts and invested it in companies that employed ordinary Americans -- and paid the Americans well enough to pay off their loans on their houses, then we would be fine.

No, we don't want to give any more money to the rich - no more tax cuts. They messed up. They are grounded.

We, the ordinary American people, have to take the job of investing in industry and jobs and our economy in our own hands. That is what we elected Obama to do -- to invest tax money in jobs for Americans and in our American economy.

Obama needs to kick out Rubin and all those who contributed to the creation of the current disaster (or get huge public mea culpas from them) and invest in infrastructure improvements and jobs until the economy has recovered and everyone is doing OK.

[Oregone]

7. I am so sick of people whining that we should tax people because they have more money than us

Isn't it rather time to send them to the guillotine and just take their wealth? :) Taxing seems so slow.

But not to worry...when most these benevolent SOBs die, they are giving it all to Make-A-Wish foundation! HURRAY!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. Rich as in assests or rich as in income?

[jwirr]

11. They create jobs alright - overseas.

[NewEnglandKnowledge]

12. The rich, or as they are also known, the Republicans

The Republican party is becoming extinct before our eyes. At every turn, they are digging a deeper hole. Americans no longer care about government spending. Tax Cuts alone have proven not to work. The irony is that the Republican argument against the spending in the Stimulus package is higher debt, (debt they created by the way in the 1980s and expanded again during the late unpleasantness), yet they continue to push for Tax Cuts which apparently don't expand the deficit. Its all the same money. I can see their stomachs turn when we see 320 million for Heath Care and all the other social agendas neglected for so long. The best part is that they cannot stop the train. Hopefully all but three of the Republicans will vote against it and bury themselves in two years and we will get the filibuster proof we desperately need. The fact is the people of this country overwhelmingly support the package because something has to be done and if we are in the largest crisis in 100 years, something quite large has to be done. If your gonna send 600 billion, does it really matter if you spend 200 billion more. If the Republicans vote on party lines, the country will crucify them. For all the rhetoric, loyalty and financial conservatism they pride themselves on, there will not be 41 US Senators with the balls to vote against it. No concessions are necessary, but some will be made for appearances (50 mil for the Arts, etc), which was probably put in as a carrot to be taken out for the Rep's to save face. The bill passes 71-29 and the Republicans get their Tax Cuts, but we get 30 years of over due legislation passed, just like Regan did under the veil of crisis. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[melm00se]

13. there is a school of thought

that says that old world solutions (taxation/regulation) applied to the new world economy is a fools errand.

The days where creature comforts, culture and connectivity were limited to North America (US and Canada) and Western Europe are gone.

Now, you can have access to all of those things in countries that are rich/business "friendly" and over-taxation and over-regulation can drive the "rich" and their wealth overseas depriving the country of the things that they need most to recover from an economic downturn.

[katsy]

14. Then why don't they just go?

Why do they need our tax $ to bail their asses out of a situation of their own making?

Now that they have ramped up their ops in rich, business-friendly foreign lands... with the help of our taxes, why do they stay?

I believe the American people can and would thrive left to their own devices. But the leaches would never allow that experiment.

These leaches cling to power (government) here because they are interested in world domination and having it all.

Tax them. Let them leave if they don't like it.

[Still Sensible]

15. I am not someone that wants to soak the rich

with 90% taxes. I would, however, like to return to the reasonable tax rates of two or three decades ago. And yes, the canard that cutting taxes on the rich creates jobs and boosts the economy is just that. If it were true, trickle down would work... it hasn't and it doesn't.

[SmileyRose]

19. IMHO

the percentage of taxes isn't the problem. It's how taxes are structured that's a problem. The current tax code makes it financially smarter for the top 5% to take their capital gains out as cash. Which means that wealth is not being used to grow the business and pay labor. The tax code from pre-Reagan made it more financially smart to invest capital gains into the business and into employees.

90% taxes is a fat lie anyway. No one ever paid that kind of rate. No one. BUT what that did was temper greedy behavior so that money was used as wages and benefits rather than dividends.

[Kablooie]

18. The rich use extra money to buy planes, decorate offices and party.

What's all this 'create jobs' crap?

(Oh, I see. More jobs for pilots, aircraft mechanics, decorators, and bartenders. So maybe it does create jobs. )