Quote:Can't wait to actually read this entire thread! But I do want to mention one thing I would like corporatists to consider...


Prior to Reagan the rich and big corporations paid a significantly larger tax rate. From Reagan on, we were sold that lower taxes would benefit the rich, and then that money would make its way throughout the economy as the rich started spending that money. Jobs would be created and everyone would win.


What we have seen is the opposite for the last 30 years. Taxes have continuously lowered and the gap between the rich and the rest of us has increased. The middle class, as someone else mentioned has been slowly dying.


So why continue a tax policy that we've implemented since the 80's that is having the opposite effect of what is was sold to do?

 

You don't know that it's had the opposite effect.   It's possible that it did benefit us all.   It's possible that if we had not done it, we would be even worse off.  

 

Your logic is like saying, they told me I had to go to the dentist or I would lose my teeth.   Yesterday I had to have a tooth pulled.  So going to the dentist hasn't worked!   I think I will stop going to the dentist.   Or, they told us that exercise would make us healthy.   So I've exercised for the last 3 years.   Then yesterday I got sick.   So exercise hasn't worked! 

 

Do you remember the luxury tax on boats that was passed in the 1990s?   The target was the rich.   But what happened was, it threw a bunch of blue collar boat builders out of work.   http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-06...s-harrison

 

My point is, taxes on rich people can have a negative effect on poor or middle class people. 

 

What do you think happens to all that money the rich accumulate?   They either spend it or save it.   If they spend it, that creates a lot of jobs for people who make and service the things rich people buy.   If they save it, they can put it in a bank, where it increases the supply of money available for mortgages and loans, thereby lowering interest rates so more middle class people can buy homes or automobiles.   Or the rich people can invest it, and that invested money either raises the value of the middle class person's 401k plan, or it is invested in a new business that employs poor and middle class people.  

 

My point is, raising taxes is not a good way to fight income inequality.    I mean, you might rein in income inequality, but at the same time, make everyone poorer. 

 

By the way, what is a "corporatist"?  

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