This doesn't have quite as much to do with The Meltdown as it does with how our government raises money via the income tax. Warren Buffett noted in a speech he made in 2007 that "he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent". A truly progressive income tax policy is a vital component of a healthy economy. As it is now, our income tax policy contributes to the formation of bubble economies, huge disparities in wealth and income, underfunding of vital government services and infrastructure maintenance, and, by extension our current economic mess (I guess it does relate to The Meltdown after all).
Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com has an excellent post on marginal tax rates over the last 95 years. It's worth reading to put our administration's current proposals on tax policy into perspective.
One more quote from Mr. Buffett: "If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning."
How's your class doing?
No comments:
Post a Comment