I Don't Hate The Rich. I Don't Want To Confiscate Their Wealth,

[DemocratSinceBirth]

I know three millionaires and they are all Democrats. One of them was my boss and she was the best boss I ever had. All three were generous to a fault. I don't think they would think a forty percent rate would kill em either...

[TheKentuckian]

1. A sane mechanism to fund the government and promote the general welfare

is not punishment nor evidence of hate.

Finding too great an imbalance of income and accumulated wealth fundamentally dangerous is neither jealousy or anger.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. I Think There Is An Element Of Hate Among Some When The "Rich" Are Discussed

I think greed not wealth is the problem.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[duhneece]

7. Well said

You stated what seem to be true so eloquently.

[golfguru]

3. The tax rate should be based on optimum tax revenue

If tax rate is zero, tax revenue will be zero.
If tax rate is 100%, no one will bother working and tax receipts
will still be zero. Somewhere in between is the magical tax rate
which gives enough incentive to work hard and produce income which
then generates the maximum tax revenue.

I don't know what that magical number is.

[Cosmocat]

5. 39%for the top rate worked just fine ...

in the 90s ...

The 33% is too low to "incentivize" them to otherwise invest money into riskier business expenses that could be written of ...

The issue that just does not get talked about is that an overconcentration of wealth at the top of the economic ladder just is not good for the economy ... Like it or not, there has to be some capital at the bottom to work its way up ...

[duhneece]

8. 91% under Eisenhower; no one called HIM a socialist

Ronald Reagan 50%, Ford and Nixon 70%, Eisenhower 91%

Every American enjoys a better life (life expectancy; education; public necessities like clean water, air, sewers, humane legal & law enforcement agencies, roads, bridges, food & drug regulation.)

[Cosmocat]

30. LOL ...

But, yeah, at 33% it is communistic, socialistic, hating the rich wealth redistribution ...

[ProudDad]

21. 80-90% worked just fine during the Great Prosperity

From 1944 through 1975...

[damntexdem]

4. I do, I do.

;-)

[SheilaT]

6. We had probably the greatest economic growth

in this country when the tax rates were at their highest. The 1950's, if I recall correctly, the top rate was around 90%. I'm not bothering to research this, so if I'm off, just correct me. Life certainly was not perfect in that decade, but we did have some amazing increases in income, especially for the working class.

[JamesA1102]

23. But in the '50s most of the world was in ruins

thanks to WWII. We had no competition back then and that was a big part of our economic growth.

[Fool Count]

10. Well, then don't come for your share when we do confiscate their wealth.

Just needs to be done if this country is to survive.

[stevenleser]

14. Don't hold your breath.

There is a marked difference between increasing taxes and confiscating wealth. I think you will find a huge percentage of people trying to stop you with the latter.

[ProudDad]

22. Not if there's Class Consciousness

[craigmatic]

11. We need to target not just the rich but the super wealthy. For 30 years they've got a free ride

without paying their fair share of taxes. It's past time to change that. It's not like they really create jobs anyway.

[Mike 03]

12. What is wrong with a sliding scale?

A fifty percent tax on an estate of one million is a lot different than a fifty percent tax on an estate of fifteen million.

I am a lifelong Dem, but I disagree with the way this debate has been framed. One million dollars is not that much any more.

EDIT: Kick and rec for the stimulating debate.

[whosinpower]

13. Confiscate ?!?

What an odious word to choose.

If private companies ran things like a police service, and charged a fee - would you say that is confiscating your wealth?
How about the fire department - is that fee confiscating your wealth?

Taxes are not confiscating wealth. Taxes are expenses and are used to pay for police, firemen, social services, public works, education, infrastructure, national security.

Stop with the republican meme. When government spends more than it takes in taxes must go up, or programs must cease. George Bush wanted two wars - and you have to pay for it....and so do your millionaires.

Taxes are also an investment.....in your country, for your country, in your currency. Continue down this road of deficits and exporting jobs and the wealth will continue to pool to a select few, while the nation falls - like Iceland, Like Ireland, and a host of others. The ONLY thing that keeps the wolves at bay is that the US greenback is the world reserve currency. Keep eroding confidence that the US government will ever be able to pay back its debt and you will find yourself abandoned for safer ground....and by all accounts...it might be the yen.

Taxes are not evil. They are necessary for the health of your nation - so stop with the "confiscating".

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[brentspeak]

17. PR firms hired by the White House and the DLC n/t

[JamesA1102]

24. You remind me of Republicans who call anyone that disagrees

a communist or un-American.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[phleshdef]

19. I feel the same. If we didn't need to tax anyone for anything, that'd be great...

...but thats not the way the world works.

If this country ever gets to the point where we have major surpluses, everyone generally has a reasonable way to meet their needs and all that good stuff, then slash taxes all to hell until we need them again. Thats what the right wingers don't get about most liberals. We don't want to tax just for the sake of taxing. There is a purpose to it.

[ProudDad]

20. Why not?

Most of it is the wealth of our Commons stolen to make a few ultra-comfortable...

In a Just World, we'd take it back...

[GeorgeGist]

25. shallow

[backscatter712]

26. I do.

Don't humanize them.

[Starry Messenger]

27. What a difference a few years makes.

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=420216&mesg_id=421985

[DemocratSinceBirth]

28. Thank You For Finding That

I don't see anything incongruous between what I said then and what I wrote now.

[ClassWarrior]

29. Ah, so you're proving how deceptive RW framing can be dangerous to our values?

:rofl:

NGU.