{"id":181,"date":"2012-05-30T10:15:46","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T17:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/?p=181"},"modified":"2012-07-04T11:42:36","modified_gmt":"2012-07-04T18:42:36","slug":"tax-the-rich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/tax-the-rich\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax the Rich!? Pay their Fair Share! Is that Really a Solution?"},"content":{"rendered":"

AN INCONVENIENT FACT; Statistics show that the RICH are disappearing.:<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/strong>There are not enough rich and there is\u00a0not enough confiscatable wealth\u00a0in the entire country to solve the budget problems.\u00a0 Regardless of anyone’s political opinions,\u00a0math is always math.<\/strong>\u00a0 There just isn’t enough for taxes to be the solution!\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span> If the government took everything<\/strong> from the rich, it still would not be enough to fix the budgetary problems our bureaucrats (in their infinite wisdoom), have created..<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em> In the minds of many,\u00a0the solution to the US deficit issues, the ability to support or provide new “needed”, programs and entitlements is to \u201ctax the rich more\u201d.\u00a0 That proposition is a fallacy.\u00a0 We now see that the problem is even worse than we thought!\u00a0\u00a0There are not enough rich, the middle class is disapparning, the poor have nothing to take.\u00a0\u00a0 Who are we supposed to tax, now?…\u00a0\u00a0<\/em> <\/span>More Taxation<\/span> clearly is not the answer<\/strong>.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Remember, no one is asserting that programs to help those in need shouldn’t exist or be funded.\u00a0 <\/em><\/span>Rather, the issue is the proper mechanism for doing so.\u00a0<\/span><\/span> A never ending upward spiraling of taxes is provably not the answer as will be shown below.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a simple mathematical fact that following this course\u00a0would not even address the current budget issues, let alone provide sufficient funds for more programs.\u00a0 We will address in future articls policies that actually could work.\u00a0 In this article we wil concentrate on demonstrating why the current path can not lead to the intended destination<\/span><\/span>.\"\"<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Fallacy of Tax the Rich:<\/span><\/strong>
\nFor 2009, (the most recent year that complete stats are available) ONLY 3% of the tax returns filed in the US were for more than $200,000 of taxable income. And remember, the top 5% of earners already<\/em> pay well over 50%<\/em><\/span><\/strong> of the federal tax burden as it stands.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Could they really pay more? Should they? And if they did, would it help?<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\nI think the answer is apparent.\u00a0 There simply are not enough rich and not enough\u00a0wealth\u00a0to solve the problem.\u00a0 If the government took it all, it still would not be enough. <\/em>At some point, enough is enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

Class Warfare<\/span><\/strong>
\nPolitically, the idea of \u201cclass warfare<\/span><\/em>\u201d and \u201ctax the rich<\/em><\/span>\u201d works. <\/span>
\nPoliticians get elected using it every year\u00a0 but as a solution to the country\u2019s ills, class warfare makes about as much sense as a vaccination of\u00a0cancer.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The US and the world has a problem. We need solutions and solutions do exist (many will be discussed in other articles), but\u00a0the \u201cTax the Rich\u201d proposals that are so arduously being promoted as the solution, is simply a lie.<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\nThe US does not have a Tax or Revenue issue\u2026 it has a spending issue. We have to get it under control!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But what about the \u201cBuffet\u201d rule?<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nShouldn\u2019t the wealthy pay, at least, the same percentage as their secretary?<\/span>
\nThe short answer is yes<\/strong><\/em>. The real answer is \u201cit depends on how the income is derived\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Buffet rule would increase the tax rate for capital gains and dividends. On its face that doesn\u2019t sound like a bad idea, but there is a reason that those rates are lower (future articles will discuss those reasons in detail). But in general, the tax structure is different because of the risk involved in capital gains and dividend earnings. This form of income requires the investment of your own money rather than your labor to even have the potential of a return. But to get that return requires risk.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Many might respond\u2026<\/span>
\n\u201cSo what? Life\u2019s a risk!<\/span><\/em> If you lose it, you write it off! \u00a0If you’re lucky and cash in, you pay taxes. That\u2019s how it should work isn\u2019t it? Where\u2019s the problem?<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

YES! That is how it should work\u2026 And I wish it did.<\/em><\/strong> If that were how the tax hit was determined, I would agree and become a fan of the buffet rule and the raising of dividend and capital gain taxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s NOT<\/em> how it works, not by a long shot. With our tax code, absurdity is the norm.<\/span><\/em><\/span>
\nGenerally, no matter how large the loss<\/strong>, the investor can only deduct $3,000 of that loss per year.<\/span>
\nHowever, no matter how much you earn i.e. If you earn $100,000 in a year, all of it is taxable.<\/span>
\nThis leads to absolutely absurd results as shown below. In another article we will discuss this in detail, but in general\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s assume in 2012:<\/span><\/strong>
\nYou have an investment that lost $100,000, while having another, investment that earned $50,000.<\/span>
\nAny second grader could tell you that you LOST $50,000<\/em> dollars that year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Due to the limitations on capital gains losses, according to the IRS, you EARNED $47,000!<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 You are actually required to pay taxes on income that you did not receive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tax code, as it now stands, has many absurdities that should be fixed. There are many ways to do it\u2026 The Buffet rule is not one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Join the Forum discussion on this post<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AN INCONVENIENT FACT; Statistics show that the RICH are disappearing.: There are not enough rich and there is\u00a0not enough confiscatable wealth\u00a0in the entire country to solve the budget problems.\u00a0 Regardless of anyone’s political opinions,\u00a0math is always math.\u00a0 There just isn’t enough for taxes to be the solution!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If the government took everything from the rich, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics-101","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2EGlL-2V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allsolutionsnetwork.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}