Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Taxation is not a matter of liberty, or fairness, or principle, or class, or any philosophical babble: it is accounting. Every dime Government spends is a loan from the American people, and it needs to be paid back by the individuals who ended up with it. When Willie Sutton, a famous bandit, was asked why he robbed banks, he said, "because that's where the money is." The Poor can't pay any taxes, the Middle Class have deductions, and The Rich are coddled with magical Capital Gains welfare, so no one is paying back the money loaned to them by all the other citizens of America, which is why our National Debt is almost $20 trillion.

The Reagan Tax Cuts were the biggest in history up to that time then Bush Jr passed the new largest tax cuts in history. The cuts are working great for The Rich, as demonstrated by the vast accumulation of wealth of the 0.01%. Lowered taxes also explains the astronomical increase in executive pay, sports prizes, and other highly-selective remuneration that would never have happened in bygone days when top tax rates were 90%. Executives used to forgo big salaries because they didn't want the government to get it all, and they didn't quit or work less as a result.

The Rich get that way by taking a larger piece of the pie. Taxing low & middle income Americans is “regressive” taxation, because The Rich then take their larger piece. The most regressive tax of all is Social Security & Medicare, and Sales Tax is also terribly regressive. The Rich have the game rigged to accumulate wealth. “Progressive” taxation, increasing rates at higher incomes, is the best method of slowing this accumulation.