Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNative
I find it interesting how Americans seem so worried about taxing the rich. For a start the vast bulk of Americans are not rich and don't pay anywhere near the top tax bracket.
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Too many Americans have been wrongly convinced that they are affluent and that any extra taxes for the highest income earners also will affect them negatively. It's a sustained campaign that has been sold to Americans since, at the very least, the 1950s. This is why you see many Americans in the middle class, and especially the suburban upper middle class, balk at the suggestion that they ought to support a more equitable tax structure (equitable being how percentage affects your buying ability, NOT a flat tax percentage which due to independent costs, makes the buying ability of low income earners considerably lower than high income earners). The 1% is the 1%, but I'm willing to bet you at least 20% or more of Americans think they're in that 1% or close to it, when in reality nearly half of Americans don't even make enough to qualify to be taxed because they make so little that any taxation would be a detriment to their ability to survive.
The middle class needs to pay taxes, absolutely, but the middle class alone can't carry the entire infrastructure, defense, and social security cost for themselves and the poor, let alone provide for those programs (like defense and transportation) that the rich do benefit from. Progressive income tax, higher capital gains taxes, and a progressive sales tax (more sales tax the higher the cost of the item, so staple items have little or no tax, but luxury yachts have a high tax) is the way to go.
I say this having been quite blessed in my life, and I'm willing to pay for social programs and infrastructure. Slap some taxes on my iPhone and iPad and BMW. I can afford the tiny percentage that goes to supporting my fellow citizens, and if I can't, maybe I need to rethink my financial priorities.