Hunting the Rich: Article in The Economist of Sept 24, 2011
I think that this is quite an interesting article. For the economist to admit that there is a class war is a bold first step. For it to admit that the rich benefit relatively from spending cuts, for it to admit that the rich shift their incomes to less taxed forms, all point to an acceptance that all is not well with the system.
At the same time, I also agree that the top marginal rate needs to be inoppressive and non-confiscatory. The problem is that for years the rich have been protecting themselves with lobbied tax shelters and their effective tax rates are much lower than any marginal rate. If effective personal tax rates are made equal to marginal rates, as the economist is suggesting, matters will improve.
Corporate tax rates are another matter. Already, large corporations are growing larger into uncontrolled leviathans, bigger and more powerful than the State, and as the US financial crisis showed clearly, able to use tax payer money to bail themselves out and give their executives bonuses instead of the sack for their part in the financial crisis.
Perhaps, ceilings need to be imposed on the sizes of large corporations, as I mention in my new blog "Party for the middle classes' available on blogspot.com.
A new world order... who could have imagined that a Tunisian would have led us to this hope...a dream which we refused to dream.
I think that this is quite an interesting article. For the economist to admit that there is a class war is a bold first step. For it to admit that the rich benefit relatively from spending cuts, for it to admit that the rich shift their incomes to less taxed forms, all point to an acceptance that all is not well with the system.
At the same time, I also agree that the top marginal rate needs to be inoppressive and non-confiscatory. The problem is that for years the rich have been protecting themselves with lobbied tax shelters and their effective tax rates are much lower than any marginal rate. If effective personal tax rates are made equal to marginal rates, as the economist is suggesting, matters will improve.
Corporate tax rates are another matter. Already, large corporations are growing larger into uncontrolled leviathans, bigger and more powerful than the State, and as the US financial crisis showed clearly, able to use tax payer money to bail themselves out and give their executives bonuses instead of the sack for their part in the financial crisis.
Perhaps, ceilings need to be imposed on the sizes of large corporations, as I mention in my new blog "Party for the middle classes' available on blogspot.com.
A new world order... who could have imagined that a Tunisian would have led us to this hope...a dream which we refused to dream.
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