Monday, October 19, 2009

Question of the week ~ tax the rich





Would it be just to tax the rich in order to provide health care for the uninsured poor? Answer yes or no, and then tell us why, if you like.

3 comments:

June said...

Absolutely, it'd be OK. We already have a progressive tax system where rich pay more than poor, so it'd be just an extension of that system to do it. "National Security" in my mind extends beyond protection from being bombed to death. Taxes and/or debt for wars barely get attention, yet to provide a social service and people start talking about socialism and redistribution of wealth. Well redistribution of wealth has been happening since the beginning of time. It's just usually the other way around.

Gregory Murray said...

I agree with June that redistribution of wealth benefits the rich...that's why they ARE rich! However, my antidote to poverty is different. Taxing the rich provides small compensation and does not solve the problem, since the system continues to siphon MORE from the have-nots than they can possibly get through social welfare. Nor does it solve the moral dilemma of wealth redistribution, which I believe is an important ethical consideration. Nor, in the long run, is it a viable economic system. My antidote, therefore, is to end the system that redistributes wealth, either through taxation or through planned inflation, which is the hidden tax. This must include ending the Federal Reserve System, a quasi-private banking cartel. Thomas Jefferson pointed out the evils of a central banking system, and he was correct. Now those who hold his same view are considered antiquated at best. But he was absolutely right. To end the system of wealth redistribution could only come out in favor of the have-nots in the long run, because it would even the playing field and require competence, not government privilege, to be the decisive factor in gaining wealth. In such a world, charity would be needed less and given more. Also in such a world, there would be no mechanism for states to build the massive war machines that destroy lives and property, again, for the benefit of the few at the top.

CJ said...

By all means, let's tax 'the rich' even more. Afterall, what do they do with their money besides creating jobs and paying over 80% of all taxes already paid?

I keep hearing about a jobless recovery, which hardly seems like a recovery to me. There are millions of people out of work and we're shedding jobs at a rate of around 500,000 a month. In Michigan, we have lost over a million jobs under our current governor and her 'tax the rich' ideas. History has shown time and time again that the way to create jobs is to cut taxes, not raise them.