You could tax 100% of
Warren Buffett’s income (not wealth) and after Bill
Gates he’d still be the second richest man in the U.S.
Buffett knows that
the progressive income tax is a tax not on the rich but on becoming
rich. Tax others more and he will have less competition nipping at his
heels. Buffett says in the NY Times the lower capital gains tax he pays
is too low. If he feels guilty about earning his $50 billion he can give
$49 billion to the IRS and still remain a billionaire.
Nearly all Nobel
Laureate Economists advocate a zero capital gains tax. They agree with
LvMises that the only way to raise the “general”
standard of living is to increase savings (capital) and capital
investment at a faster pace than the increase in population. This
enables workers with better machines and equipment to produce more for
each hour worked and earn higher salaries. Hence the reason for the
lower capital gains rate.
Except Paul
Krugman who apparently believes 100% of everyone’s income (except
his own) should be taxed 100% and re-distributed as he and other
intellectuals see fit.
Idiots complain the
wealthy don’t pay their fair share. The WSJ editorialized
4/18/11 that even if you “confiscated” 100% of the income of all
millionaires and billionaires it would yield a mere $938 billion,
seemingly a lot, but a mere pittance out of the $4 trillion White House
budget. On 8/17/11 the WSJ editorialized that the top 3% pay more than
the bottom 97%, and still some say, “Not Enough.”
For those inveighing
against profits, stripped of emotional sound bites, profits are the only
way to know how to allocate scarce resources. Otherwise our politicians
would be lining train tunnels with silver as Professor Murray
Rothbard noted instead of cement, since silver last longer. Without
profits there would be no way to know the best use of resources. Ask
anyone in Cuba or North Korea.
Contrary to the U-T
assertion, Irwin Jacobs and Buffett make no sense at all.
Professor Ben Rogge, in “Can Capitalism Survive,”
noted: Businessmen, even hugely successful businessmen, do not
necessarily believe in or understand how free enterprise works. They
would be successful under any economic system. Consumers, not
businessmen, are the primary beneficiaries of the U.S. competitive
profit and loss system. Only under “free enterprise” is Business success
dependent upon serving consumers as consumers wish to be served and not
as politicians or whatever form of government you name wishes to be
served.
It’s not surprising
Buffett, Gates and most millionaires are Democrats. The Democrats
advocate raising taxes on the rich to garner the votes of benighted
Americans and then for the 50 years they controlled Congress they larded
up the tax code with “tax loopholes” for millionaires in exchange for
their political contributions. A proven wining combination.
