I have answered the question. I think it is fair to raise taxes on the rich now, and I have explained why by referencing to income inequality and the growth patterns of the economy the last 30 years. Now, the reality is that this economic growth have been concentrated at the top, and the higher you go, the higher the growth. So, the top 1% have seen more growth than the top 10% and so on.
I am open to concentrating tax increases for those earning over $500 000 or $1 million. The details is best left to relevant experts. What is important is the principle of it. To imagine that the rich is somehow burdened unfairly in this economy is ludicrous (as I have explained). What is clear is that those who have to pay in this economy is those who have benefited from its structure, and that (as I have explained) is the rich.
How much money would additionally taxing those earning over $500,000 or a million bring in at whatever rate you think is “fair”?
I realize your statement is theoretical, but if, as Warren Buffett says, his secretary pays taxes at a higher rate than he does, he’ll do the same even if the highest bracket rates are increased. How do you expect to actually reach the Warren Buffetts without changing more than the tax rate? And if you do, do you have a reasonable expectation that he won’t just find another way to pay less in taxes?
I’m not terribly interested in the “principle” of taxing the rich more. What is their life to me? If I’m okay in my life, why should I care that they have more money than I do? To me, the real question is how much money it would bring into the government and at what other cost to the society.
It’s of interest that the proportion of national income going to “property”, i.e., capital, relative to that of “labor” almost never changes, and hasn’t changed significantly since statistics began in 1929. What DOES change is the percentage of labor’s share that goes to income from workers who work versus income to “workers” for not working. As income from “not working” goes up, income from working goes down as a percentage of national income. Why? Because the cost of paying non-working folks is paid by both income from work and income from property, but since the overall ratio of income from property and labor/non labor never changes significantly, income from work is the most seriously affected, percentage-wise. And the greater the percentage of money spent on “non-work” (i.e. government transfer payments) the less the percentage of money that goes to those who work.
One could perhaps argue that things like the “earned income credit” is a far better way to aid the poor than is paying them to not work at all, because it burdens income from labor less, and actually results in production. In truth, one could apply that to social security as well.
But, of course, reduction in income from labor exactly follows the abortion rate, but with about a 20 year lag. That’s because “transfer payments” increase per capita because additional workers are missing from the labor force; additional workers whose work would decrease transfer payments as a percentage of national income.
Understanding all that, government support of abortion and magnifying of transfer payments are anti-labor in a very big way.