How about those property taxes?

[jeffk]

Originally Posted by Rattlesnake Guy

Jeffk,
I sometimes get the crazy thought that if the top 50% raised their tax burden by 3.3% and told the bottom 50% they don't have to pay a cent, if the reality of the current situation would have a chance of sinking in.

There are people who know exactly how the system works and don’t care because pontificating on how the “rich pay no taxes” is how they get elected. It’s a power game. They want power and this is how they get it. Since there are more mid to low earners than high earners they can build a winning vote this way. They create the impression that an inequity exists and they are going to “fix” the problem. People who are struggling to make ends meet see the inequity as cruelly unfair and strongly support such a person, even though the basis for that support is untrue.

Other people are socialists in their world view and believe that everyone should be afforded equal financial positions and look at the tax system as a way to “fairly” redistribute equal income to all. The person making a 6 figure salary has no right to it in the first place and so we will tax it right out of him.

It seems to me I read somewhere that the founders of this country did not want too strong of a money generating capability for the central government because the temptation to use money to buy favor with the voters would prove too sore a temptation for most. How tempting to turn to the “common man” and say “Look here. I’ll provide this benefit for you and it will cost you nothing. I will take the funds from the wealthy. Simply vote for me and I will provide this for you.” Since the Income Tax was established in 1913, only because the “common man” thought it was to be only a “rich man’s” tax , this is exactly what has happened. The only problem is that the “common man” has been taken along for the rich man’s tax ride because all the rich man’s money in the country is not enough to satiate the longing for money and power in the federal government.