re: #175 BishopX

Just something to keep in mind when you talk about how high the tax burden on the rich is. The top 10% of the population pay 70 percent of the taxes, and control about 70% of the wealth. The top 1% of the population pays 38% of the taxes and control 42% of the wealth.

So when you talk about the rich having a high tax burden, please keep in mind that what they are paying isn’t out of line with what they own. The fact that taxes seem to be this skewed is caused by the fact that the distribution of wealth in this country is skewed. Altering the tax structure to alleviate the burden on the wealthy is fine, so long as the wealth is redistributed as well.

If the top 10% of the country controlled 20% of the wealth, I would be fine taxing them at a much lower rate.

Control of wealth isn’t really the point. It’s consumption. Those who control wealth without consuming it are stewards.

The top 10% of the nation doesn’t consume 70% of the economy’s production. The top 10% don’t own 70% of the nation’s square footage of housing. They don’t rack up 70% of the nation’s grocery bills. Maybe they own 70% of the nation’s gold jewelry but that’s small beer.

What’s more, ‘control of wealth’ isn’t a lifetime permanent thing. If I start out with nothing but a degree and a job, and plug away at building my 401K and making my house payments, then at the cusp of retirement, I’ll control more wealth than my earlier or later selves. This me is unfair to those other me’s?

Even if everyone had the same life story, any snapshot of the population would show considerable inequality in wealth. On top of that, there are real inequalities in earnings potential, and there are real inequalities in life decisions: some people choose to save, while others prefer to spend now and worry later about later.

It seems fair enough to partially even out differences in earnings potential with our tax system, but why should we worry about life cycle stage inequalities, and why should we penalize the guy who consumes sparingly now so he will have something left for later?