By Eric Leitzen
Hokah, MN
You would not believe how worried people get when I say “Tax the Rich.” Whether it is on a sign, in a conversation, or on social media, those three little words really seem to set people off. I can only assume the idea cuts pretty deep for some folks, who might fear that THEY are the rich I want to tax, and that saying such a simple slogan might be too simple as to be misinterpreted against, say, small business owners.
Folks, I’ll say it right now: if you have to ask whether or not you’re a rich person, you aren’t. The rich know they are rich, and they are rich enough to pay other people to tell you that you might be rich enough to be in trouble… which of course, you aren’t. When we say we want to Tax the Rich, we don’t mean the guy busting his back running a local diner. We mean the guy who owns half the town. We mean the lady with a yacht so big she can park another yacht inside it. We mean people who complain about having to pay taxes but seem to think throwing around 43 billion dollars to attempt to buy all of Twitter is perfectly normal. These folks are so far beyond what a regular person lives and experiences that they are almost a different species, and I have the numbers to prove it.
Let’s take a look at, say, Minnesota Senate District 28, for no particular reason. Winona County, Houston County, Fillmore County. From what I could gather at the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, per capita income for those three counties (which is a fancy pants way of saying “average money we made in 2020”) came in just around $45-$50,000 for 2020. Of course, that means some made much more, some made much less, but I think it’s safe to say that Bluff Country isn’t swimming in billionaires.
According to Kiplinger, Forbes, and USNews the 10 richest counties in the US do not include a single county in Minnesota. According to Forbes, a Minnesota county doesn’t even make the top 20. Let’s run that BEA analysis for some of those rich counties. Virginia, for example, has six counties with over double our numbers, $100,000 or more on average per resident. California has four. New York has three. Minnesota has two, and they ain’t down here. When we say we want to tax the rich, it is 99% likely we’re not talking about you, your neighbors, or your friends. The rich, the truly wealthy in this country have an amount of money that is so vast and so disgusting that anyone who’s actually down here living like a normal person cannot even imagine what it must be like… and that is why we must tax them.
Because, remember, this is your money already. You worked for it, you earned it, but you never got it. Profits go up for 40 years but wages don’t keep pace, meanwhile the rich are richer than ever. How do you think they got so rich? By not paying you what you are worth.
Tax the Rich in order to Get Your Money Back.
You are owed 40 years of back pay. Demand it.
Greg K Rendahl says
Stan, under Trump the National Deficit rose hugely, up $7.8 trillion. Trump said when the 2017 tax cut kicks in and with his Tariffs the debt will begin to disappear quite quickly. This was thoroughly stupid and wrong. Republicans and many wealthy folks continue to pretend Art Laffer was not and idiot or a charlatan. Why do you find it so wonderful that the top 1% keep taking a larger share of our national wealth? This has been going on strongly for nearly a half century. Money buys politicians. Great wealth is bad for a democracy., but many Republicans have given up on democracy. This is both sad and dangerous.
Stanley J Gudmundson says
Would it be too much to ask for commentators on economics to read at least one book on economics? Especially for those who are English majors? Theoretically they can read so it shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll number my points just to make them easier to follow. 1) What the rich have is not yours, not mine, and not ours. 2) In a properly functioning economy, their wealth is not in form of cash, bank deposits, gold and those sorts of things 3) The vast majority of that wealth is in the form of ownership of companies/processes that they own. 4) Those companies/processes etc. provide jobs and income for millions of Americans. And provide a standard of living second to none. 5) We could tax the dickens out of them but there are problems with that. First, the amount of taxes we supposedly could get from them would be greatly reduced. Second, they are going to find ways to keep their wealth by purchasing things that do not create jobs or help improve the economy or the lives of Americans in general. They invest in high value things like gold, art, collector automobiles, land and a whole host of other things. Most of the really wealthy do some of that anyway but they would do a lot more of it with confiscatory tax rates. In so doing, they would take invaluable money out of productive things. 6) The economic objective and tax rate we should pursue would be one where we maximize both economic performance and tax revenue. The left doesn’t seem to understand this. When Obama was told that increasing the capital gains tax rate would decrease tax revenue he said he didn’t care. Increasing the rates was the right thing to do in his mind. 7) Of the seven deadly sins, envy is one of the worst. As it is with the tax the rich advocates.
Stanley J Gudmundson says
It would be wonderful if ‘tax the rich’ commentators would at least read a book about economics. First, what the wealthy have is theirs. Not yours, not mine, and not ours. Second, their wealth is not cash stuffed in bank accounts or other places. Their wealth is in the form of ownership of companies/processes they invest in and/or own. Third, those companies provide the basis for many of the jobs and economic opportunity for everyone in our nation. Plus innovation and technical advancement. Fourth, taxed at very high rates, the wealthy move money into investments that will retain their value. Those kinds of investments create very few jobs although many still do invest in some of those sorts of things just to preserve their wealth if things turn upside down. Fifth, if anyone is paying attention to the data and reality, they will understand that high tax rates inhibit economic performance and growth. Sixth, whole idea of ‘tax the rich’ is one of the seven deadly sins. Envy. And that’s not pretty in whatever form it takes.