Thoughts on Macroeconomic Issues, Market Cycles and Investing. I am not selling anything here. My focus is managing my own investments. I am on the web to gather and discuss data and viewpoints. This site is mostly to document my views and forecasts. You are welcome to add your comments.
The reason for taxing the rich is the same as the reason for robbing banks – because that’s where the money is.
posted by zephyr @ 3:26 PM
6 comments
Investor and Retired Fortune 500 executive. Formal education in Economics and Investment Finance, with over 30 years of professional experience in the capital/financial services market, including more than 10 years as a CEO. Recently CEO of a financial services company with over $1 billion of invested financial assets. Privately, my investment focus is Real Estate, where my annual after-tax return on invested equity has averaged about 23% over the last 25 years.
6 Comments:
So, the top 1% pays ~37% of combined income tax receipts. So what? I fall into that bracket.
What percentage of combined AGI is earned by the top 1%?
I assume you are not idiotic enough to suggest that the top 1% should pay 1% of all taxes. Or are you?
If we divided the income of the US into thirds, we find that the top ten percent of the population gets a third, the next thirty percent gets another third, and the bottom sixty percent get the last third. If we divide the wealth of the US into thirds, we find that the top one percent own a third, the next nine percent own another third, and the bottom ninety percent claim the rest. (Actually, these percentages, true a decade ago, are now out of date. The top one percent are now estimated to own between forty and fifty percent of the nation's wealth, more than the combined wealth of the bottom 95%.)
"Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, make the case for wealth:
"Ultimately, we are interested in the question of relative standards of living and economic well-being. We need to examine trends in the distribution of wealth, which, more fundamentally than earnings or income, represents a measure of the ability of households to consume.""
Take a look at this graph:
http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so11/stratification/income&wealth.htm
Look at this please:
http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so11/stratification/income&wealth.htm
So, who exactly is it that we are supposed to believe is being mistreated?
Patrick:
The link does not have a graph. It appears that the link path is incomplete.
I assume that the graph in question suggests something about people being mistreated.
Anon:
I am not suggesting lower taxes for the rich (as you imply).
Your name-calling response seems to have no relativity to my comments. In fact, you seem to have inferred the opposite of my points.
It seems that you did not comprehend my short post. Let me simplify the key points for you:
1. We must tax the rich (because that is where the money is).
2. The key question is how to tax the rich (what is the best way to do it).
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