Share the Wealth

I laugh when I hear liberal politicians wax rhapsodic about taxes and the economy. They all believe that they can spend your money better than you can, and that's the basis of their entire 'tax the rich' and 'distribute the wealth' philosophy. Period. There's nothing in a Democratic economic platform regarding wealth or growth; there could not possibly be, when they want to double taxes on capital gains.

Sharing the wealth (better known as 'income redistribution') is straight out of the Marxist playbook, but all you will hear are platitudes about helping 'the needy' or 'the working poor'. You won't see the statistics showing how horribly awry the 'War on Poverty' has gone, or how raising taxes increases unemployment, and so on. Politicians don't get elected telling people how to do for themselves; they get elected promising to give the people things, whether money or privileges, to which they are not entitled and did not earn.

To me, there's something not quite right about taxing one American at a higher rate than another American, but I don't see that changing anytime soon. Seems to me that it's illegal - I seem to recall something in the Constitution about 'equal treatment under the law', but I guess that doesn't apply if you make more than $250k per year.

You'll likely hear a bunch of happy... ummmm... meadow muffins!... about how 'the rich' make use of so many tax loopholes and shelters that they 'don't pay their fair share'. To some extent, that's true - but 50% of Americans last year paid NO income taxes at all. And many of those received a nice check from the government!

Raising taxes on 'the rich' is simply a way for Democrats to BUY the votes of the less-privileged, who of course outnumber 'the rich' by a large margin. It all trickles down eventually, which is why higher taxes result in higher unemployment - making 'the rich' business owner pay more means he will pass that cost onto his consumers, and what he can't pass on directly will have to come off of the bottom line - expenses. #1 expense? Employees.

The economy will turn around on its own; the less government interference, the better.