Spreading the Joy
I want to post this AP story, because it's good fodder for some discussion here. Bottom line -- most Americans favor "spreading the wealth."
No wonder you're hearing GOP activists talking more about "pro-America" parts of the country -- apparently most of us are commie pinkos.
Rob,
I can't imagine anything more unjust than the redistribution of wealth through taxation. Nevertheless, I wonder how far that 51% would drop if those surveyed were presented with the following:
* What gets taxed is not equal to what gets redistributed. The government consumes most of what is taxed to sustain itself and to underwrite programs for which nobody has any say.
* Aims to reduce poverty or improve education, for instance, through redistribution haven't worked. This country has spent something like $9 trillion since the Great Society to reduce or eliminate poverty; however, the poverty rate right now is about where it was in 1964. (Sort of reminds me of the war on drugs. Not sure how much we've spent there, but a recent report showed that the US still consumes more drugs per capita than any other country.)
* Unemployment will rise and the quantity of goods and services produced by American companies will decrease - in this era of globalization, the US would lose a competitive edge with increased taxation.
* Taxation on any activity will decrease the level of that activity (e.g., cigarette taxes and smoking). Tax the people who provide the jobs and fewer jobs will be created. Tax corporate profits and companies will go out of business. Tax investment and people will invest less.
Sorry, but I'd rather spend my hard-earned money on my own family than to involuntarily provide a portion of my income to the federal government for redistribution to who knows where.
Hope this makes some sense. That Obama campaign song still has me dizzy.
John Galt wrote:
Methinks this reflects a failure of imagination.
Hyping progressive taxation as an injustice more pernicious than -- say racial discrimination, to pick one -- is the kind of rhetoric that gives libertarians and Randian objectivism such a bad rap.
If this is true, shouldn't we should be support an increase in the inheritance tax, christened by the Repubs as the "death tax", as a way to promote life? ;-)
Seriously, the effect to which moderately higher rates destroys capitalistic enterprise seems vastly overrated to me given European data points...
p.s. I'm Andrew P., myopenid notwithstanding.