At the outset of his column “Rich won’t put up with high taxes” appearing on the New Era editorial page, John Stossel says: “Progressives want to raise taxes on individuals who make more than $200,00 because they say it’s wrong for the rich to be ‘given’ more money. Sunday’s New York Times carries a cartoon showing Uncle Sam handing money to a fat cat. They just don’t get it.
“As I’ve said before, a tax cut is not a handout. It simply means government steals less. What progressives want to do is take money from some – by force- and spend it on others. It sounds less noble when plainly stated.”
There we see in a nut shell a neo-conservative attitude that breaks with the past Republican and Democrat tradition of a ‘social compact’ and the appropriateness of ‘progressive taxation’, a term which describes a higher percentage of taxes being paid on additional dollars of earnings.
Under President Dwight Eisenhower, the tax rate on top earnings of the super rich reached into the mid-90%. Today, the highest an extra dollar – be it the millionth, the ten millionth or the billionth – can be taxed is about 34%.
Moreover, all things considered due to various other taxes which are not progressive and some that are regressive such as Social Security (after a certain amount, no more is contributed) and other tax avoidance practices of the very well to do, the actual percentage of taxes paid on earnings is no greater for the very well off than for the rest of the population.
Stossel’s contention flies in the face of the Judeo-Christian, Islamic tradition, Hindu, Buddhist, Native-American teachings of the rich having special responsibilities.
Moreover, if the trend continues of the past three decades where by the rich grow richer and the real incomes of the middle class and the poor remain the same or decline, there could be a political upheaval in the nation that would impact the well to do far more than couples earning over $250,000 a year having to pay a tiny additional tax on each dollar they earn over $250,000.
