Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

We have decided, as a society, that we want people to own houses. We want them to send their kids to college, and even go themselves. We want them to save money to retire, reduce their carbon footprint, and take care of their parents who have moved in due to Old Age. We vote, there's a lot of us, and we want it. Contrary to popular misconception, the primary benefit of taxes is to redistribute wealth. Mostly that's Government serving in its role of Largest Consumer, but also implicit redistribution using tax deductions & credits directly targeting activities that society values. However, like anything, loopholes can be exploited: anytime these benefits actually serve to enrich The 1%, they are counter-productive and rightfully despised, but if Ma-n-Pa grocer are getting the benefit, or Aunt Judy goes to college & gets off Welfare, well, that's something we should applaud.

The fact is a few rich folks use all kinds of lame, easily disproved excuses on why they shouldn't have to pay taxes on their capital gains, or the oil that they pump from our soil, or their private jets, luxury cars, and the innumerable benefits they receive but don't have to pay taxes for. They have lots of money to run all kinds of tax-avoidance schemes. For example, all those dorks who posit lower tax rates or "flat" taxes by getting rid of "loopholes," never mean the only one that counts: special treatment of Capital Gains. No, they only want the "loopholes" that the Middle Class take, like mortgage interest, education credits, retirement accounts, "green" subsidies, and the other goodies that redistribute from the wealthy to the Middle Class.