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MileHighM -> RE: Fault Lines: The Top 1% (9/22/2011 9:26:07 AM)
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To the OP: While the distribution of wealth among of private citizens may be unsettling to many like yourself and require government action to even things out, I believe that distribution is often a function of government meddling rather than inaction. Wealthy people often hoard money out of the economy when they feel uncertain about the actions and behavior of the government. Whether taxes are high or low, the very uncertainy the government creates by not having a long term fixed taxation strategy only harms the economy. Investing, creating jobs, starting businesses, etc, is a gamble. How many people like to sit at a black jack table and place bets when they don't know if the dealer has to stand or hit on 17? The answer is not many, and if they do they aren't betting big. However, I do have to ask, why many people who share these positions of hate towards wealth distribution have no malace towards the wealth of the single largest entity in the world, the US gov't? The wealth of the US gov't is staggering, yet there are people who consistently claim the government should have more of it. Right now, the US Federal, State, and Local governments collect over $4T in revenue every year, and are spending over $5T (Hence our deficit)(want a source? look it up on your fave lefty/righty website, you are all adults) When you consider the vast sums of money the government is playing with, and what quantities they are simply pissing away (purposeless wars, subsidies of every kind, futile/meaningless research and art projects, redundant government agencies and employees, a lost war on drugs, prisoner cable, etc, etc). Would it not be reasonable to assume that in that $5T of spending that we could squeezy measly 10% or $500Bil out of the budget?? Because really, what could 500B do? It could give 50 million Americans a $10,000 check every year (or 100mil som graduating scale between $10K and $1 depending on income and dependants). Talk about making sure the poor can afford health insurance or a roof over your head!!! I think the indignance should be placed squarely on the government. With so much money, how can they piss away so much, while the citizenry struggle to afford glasses for their kids, their mortgage, regular preventitive care, etc. I think this will always boil down to a spending issue until we can wisely spend what we have already. With such waste now, will any increase in revenue really solve the problem? Certainly no tax cuts and bail outs (actually, bail-outs should be made constitutionally illegal), but really what good will a hike do with current state that we are in?
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