In his daily Best of the Web newsletter, James Taranto comments (behind the WSJ paywall, unfortunately) on how openly the Democrats are now sharpening their knives, licking their lips, and fixing their gaze on the assets of the wealthy. He refers in particular to an item in the New York Times by Patricia Cohen that notes with irritation the stubborn fact that wealthy people continue to have more money than the rest of us:
A caption on a chart accompanying Cohen’s piece states: “Taking all federal taxes into account, the richest taxpayers contribute, on average, about a third of their income to the government. But they still enjoy after-tax incomes far higher than those of other Americans.’ In other words, wealthy people are wealthier than less-wealthy people. The politics of envy rests on a rejection of that simple logic.
For me the primary irritant was the use by Ms. Cohen of a familiar and wickedly disingenuous trope:
Sidestepping for the moment the messy question of just which taxes would be increased, how much more revenue could be generated by asking the rich to pay a larger share of their income in taxes?
Now, we can discuss at length the pros and cons, practical, moral, and otherwise, of raising taxes on the rich. Reasonable people may disagree. But let’s be very clear about one thing, please: nobody, least of all anybody on the Left, is proposing to ‘ask‘ anybody to do anything.
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The rich are not going to be seriously inconvenienced by the Democrats, even if they take full control of the federal government. Too many of the rich fund the Democrats and their allied groups. This is all boob bait for middle class, working class and poor voters clueless enough to believe that the Democrats are working for them. Of course, the Republicans are too stupid to figure out an effective response.
Hmm, odd timing. This was posted by Diplomad over the weekend: https://mises.org/library/how-modern-sweden-profits-success-its-free-market-history
Seeing Thomas Picketty mentioned in any study makes me think clown noses and floppy shoes. Why is it Liberals always see only upside in revenue from those dumb suckers who are rich? They didn’t get rich being dumb. In year one, yes more revenue will come in. Government will spend every dollar of it and budget accordingly for the following years. Those dumb rich will adjust to the taking of their earnings and less money flows to Washington. So on for the next year and there after.
Washington takes in enough money. How they spend the money is and always has been the problem. What sustains Liberalism/socialism? Ignorance, arrogance and envy.
http://www.fpri.org/articles/2012/12/crisis-american-conservatism-inherent-contradictions-and-end-road
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(I’ve been saying so to so many but against “Our Media” … well, just judging from the emails I’m getting hardly any Pols actually understand what I’m saying to ’em!
(Which is to say, “The Forever Campaign”).
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/sound-and-fury-feeding-frenzies-in-the-presidential-silly-season/
My mother used to reply to some childhood plan or other of mine, “Using what for money?” It’s a good question for Hillary Clinton et al. “Using what for votes?”
As for wealth, as Warren Buffett has shown, one does not get truly rich on a wage, which is what is chiefly proposed to be taxed. (There’s an old Wall Street saying that “no one ever got rich on a salary” which underscores the point.) One mostly gets really rich by founding great companies and holding them forever. (Buffett is sort of an exception in that he bought his companies.) This is one reason why Buffett himself makes only a salary of $100,000 per year by his own choice; he gets most of his compensation in the form of a rise in intrinsic value for his Berkshire stock. Which, since he doesn’t sell it, compounds internally without capital gains taxes.
Apart from which, what the tax zealots cannot do is guarantee that the world won’t adjust in response to their moves. They can’t guarantee that the rich won’t find new ways to protect the money they already have and to structure compensation to protect the new money coming in. Nor can the zealots guarantee that prices won’t slip out from under them.
antiquarian…precisely! But it is a sure bet that these same tax zealots in DC will spend every dollar they grab from the rich. When those vile rich do as you suggest and less money flows to the treasury, the zealots will scream for more as there is now a deficit! Rinse repeat.