Quote:
Originally Posted by Jinn
I love how you can talk about someone who has a 9 billion dollar net worth and use quotes around rich. He's "rich", you see, not just rich. It's those damn liberals who want to tax the 9 billion dollar man.. because they think he's "rich."
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The term "rich" is il-defined and I have been using quotes from the start. It is symbolic of the slogan from liberals about the Bush tax cuts for the "rich". The primary point of my posts here is that the real "rich", like this guy, has options and they usually can manage their tax burden. The average working guy, who is often considered "rich" can not. Hence we get people like the small business owner constantly getting the shaft from liberal policy targeting the "rich"
---------- Post added at 06:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:13 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Well if it says anything to me, it's that rich people are well-versed (and usually well-advised) on how to maximize their wealth. That's the cool thing about wealth; you can usually make a number of decisions that will allow you to get the most out of your assets. You know, making them work for you.
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This is the theme of supply-side economic tax policy. When high marginal tax rates are cut, taxes collected can often go up because people have less incentive to avoid taxes. "Rich" people have tax avoidance choices the rest of us don't have - so the thought of raising tax rates is often counter productive. Again, at a 100% marginal tax rate, most people will not put any effort into making an extra $1 compared to a 75%, 50%, 25%, or 0% marginal rate. There is an equilibrium point.
---------- Post added at 06:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:18 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
tocqueville wrote in democracy in america that the single most important area of law for keeping the united states a democracy were those which taxed and otherwise redistributed inheritances.
he considered these fundamental because they prevented the formation of an economic aristocracy.
tocqueville understood equality of right and equality of condition (more or less on the second) to be the defining features of the democratic experiment in america.
writing about the 1830s, he already saw that capitalism, which was taking shape in the cities, was likely to erase american democracy (burden of the future), just as the residuum of protestant ideologies placed severe limits on freedom (burden of the past).
conservatives oppose the redistribution of inheritances.
funny, that.
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I argue that what prevents a economic aristocracy is a free market capitalist system that allow all equally to maximize the value of their good and services in the market.
Estate taxes can easily be avoided. And when we look at wealth in this country, we find that new wealth is constantly being created. The wealth created by technology is totally different than the wealth created from industrialization.