The Taxman
I'm getting ready to send checks to the IRS. I'm ok with this. The government needs money to function but there is a point at which higher taxes will not help society or individuals. "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us".
Whether you like it or not government taxes are a way to redistribute wealth. I think it would be more fair if government worked towards a more fair and equal distribution of wealth. There are more than a few people that think the opposite is happening. If those making the same amount, paid the same amount of taxes and if those that made more money also paid more in taxes there would be better horizontal and vertical equality in the system. Blue skies smiling at me, case closed.
But that is not the way things are. There are many ideas of what is fair and what is not fair. I know that if tax rates are too high, if different kinds of income are treated differently, if the system is hard to administer and taxes are difficult to collect the ideal is in for tough sledding.
The bitching starts with I pay too much in taxes. The bitching continues in that people have selective memories regarding services from government and as in the health care issues, the healthy don't want to pay for the care of others and would prefer not to pay for their own insurance until they go to the hospital. Moral hazards abound in this discussion and just about any other discussion about political economy.
My father was an accountant. One late night discussion about taxes brought a candid admission. The government needs to redistribute income periodically. Wealthy people steal a lot of money in the system, shelter income, and wealth and if nothing is done things can out of hand. He thought full scale tax reform should happen every ten years. Good luck on that one.
Whether you like it or not government taxes are a way to redistribute wealth. I think it would be more fair if government worked towards a more fair and equal distribution of wealth. There are more than a few people that think the opposite is happening. If those making the same amount, paid the same amount of taxes and if those that made more money also paid more in taxes there would be better horizontal and vertical equality in the system. Blue skies smiling at me, case closed.
But that is not the way things are. There are many ideas of what is fair and what is not fair. I know that if tax rates are too high, if different kinds of income are treated differently, if the system is hard to administer and taxes are difficult to collect the ideal is in for tough sledding.
The bitching starts with I pay too much in taxes. The bitching continues in that people have selective memories regarding services from government and as in the health care issues, the healthy don't want to pay for the care of others and would prefer not to pay for their own insurance until they go to the hospital. Moral hazards abound in this discussion and just about any other discussion about political economy.
My father was an accountant. One late night discussion about taxes brought a candid admission. The government needs to redistribute income periodically. Wealthy people steal a lot of money in the system, shelter income, and wealth and if nothing is done things can out of hand. He thought full scale tax reform should happen every ten years. Good luck on that one.
I don't understand why you miss the fact that income distribution is the death of freedom. You keep tightening the noose and wonder why you are being choked.
ReplyDelete"Wealth and freedom severed from their rightful owner draw looters and thieves, as a body severed from life draws vultures and flies. ["John Galt," Dreams Come Due: Government and Economics as if Freedom Mattered ]"
I'm amused by your comment. I want a system of public finance, taxes, and governmental services that is more fair and promotes the persuit of happiness. Income redistribution can go both ways. I will be writing about "Entitlement" soon because I think in some ways the latter it is more problematic than income distribution.
ReplyDeleteWell wow. It seems amusing that you don't address my point. Redistribution is the death of freedom. It doesn't matter which end you are on. Read F.A Hayak "The Great Utopia" (emphasis mine)
ReplyDelete"...To make this argument sound plausible, the word "freedom" was subjected to a subtle change in meaning. The word had formerly meant freedom from coercion, from the arbitrary power of other men. Now it was made to mean freedom from necessity, release from the compulsion of the circumstances which inevitably limit the range of choice of all of us. Freedom in this sense is, of course, merely another name for power or wealth. The demand for the new freedom was thus only another name for the old demand for a redistribution of wealth...."
How do you feel about me asking Colleen to join a discussion on "Entitlement". I was thinking to make the offer to her after your futhure post on it. I'll give you a jump start...
ReplyDeleteA quote from the late Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931–2005: "You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it
I know work is a good thing. Having a job and income is a good thing. Having a good job and a good income is better. Economic activity does have a multiplier effect and governmental activity building roads, supporting higher education can and does raise productivity over time. Health care can even increase longevity and in Florida having social security can smooth out rough patches in the economic cycle. Did a search on Adrian Rogers. If you are speaking about the minister who makes money recycling old sermons, even after his death thats a good ticket and is very tax advantaged. The Church that I regularly attend had a minister who recycled his and others work and then said he needed more time to make his Sunday services interesting. I would have thought he would need less time and could have done more pastoral visits. I was cheesed that he kept calling me Steve long after he should have known my name.
ReplyDeletePoison the well much? Can you just deal with what the quote says or is it that you can't. Smearing someone is so daily kos enjoy the view, I'm done here.
ReplyDeleteI did comment on the quote and the source of the quote.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should have had a second paragraph regarding the source of the quote.
I think you, yourself are a good enough source for your own ideas and commentary. This is an on going issue on the internet. I've had stuff forwarded to me attributed to people that never said what they said and so out of context as to mean something different completely.
Does Dr. Rogers say anything about poverty and freedom or ill health and freedom or freedom being compromised by lack of opportunity,or education.