Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Let's be honest, if financial opportunity is the measure of success, America has a LOT more losers than winners. If not for the concept of the “American Dream,” the idea that anyone can rise up to make a fortune from their own effort, the shear numbers of losers, especially in a democracy, would seem to overwhelm the few winners, but our indoctrination is holding, and mostly we don't begrudge rewards for a job well done. However, it's one thing to earn a dollar from the sweat of your brow, and quite another to take that money from people less well off than yourself, but that's exactly what's happening with how things are taxed. In fact, there's a vocabulary that describes this exact concept: REGRESSIVE taxation takes money from all Americans, essentially subsidizing the wealthy.

Sales tax is the most common example of regressive taxation because it applies to everyone, even people who earn nothing. Payroll taxes are the absolute worse because only Workers pay them, not The Rich. Capital Gains taxes are actually so regressive that The Rich pay less percentage of their income than the Middle Class. Corporate tax is paid at a high rate regardless of how much money the stockholders have, but The Rich get a deduction. And the most insidious regressive tax idea of all is the so-called “Flat Tax," where everyone is supposed to have the same rate, meaning The Rich will pay less than now, and everyone else will pay more.