Fair Share?

I'm sure you have all heard the term "pay their fair share" in the news for quite a while now?  You also know that the "wealthy" and "successful" almost always coincide with the above statement.  The first question that must be asked following this statement is: What is their fair share? 30%? 40%? 50%?  How about 70%?  Maybe 90%?  I'm not sure if you've noticed, but there never is a percentage spoken of when they are talking about the rich paying their fair share.  They only say that the rich need to pay more.  My next question is: Why?  Why do the rich need to pay more?  Right now the top marginal tax rate is 35%.  Is that not enough?  I know that not very many pay that rate.  Normally a rich persons income tax rate is in the 20 percentile range.  Income from dividends and capital gains (investments) is 15%.  Still, why should that rise?  I think the top rate is too high to be honest, but I guess that might just be me. 

Why is punishing success so popular?  When did this country decide that to be successful you must be an evil person.  You must have got successful off the backs of others, you must have cheated, lied, or stolen to get there.  There is no congratulations any more for success.  No one is encouraged to look up to a successful person and try to find out how they did it so you can be successful too.  We are being taught that success is bad and must be discouraged because it is not fair.  (There is nothing wrong with success.  It should always be encouraged.)  This goes along with the idea that the rich need to pay their fair share and why the government, especially progressives and liberals, want to institute punitive taxes like we used to have from the 1940's until Regan got into office.  What these progressives and libs. conveniently forget is that higher taxes mean lower tax receipts into the government coffers.  All higher taxes do is make these feel good politicians feel good about themselves, while the economy stalls and starts going backwards as people are able to keep less and less of their money so their incentive to work hard stalls out as well.  If taxes are kept low, tax receipts into the government coffers get higher.  The main reason for this is that the more money a person is able to keep that they make, the more they are going to work.  As a business, if you get to keep more of your money instead of paying it out in taxes, you will probably higher more people, which in turn creates more taxpayers.  More companies are created as a result of lower taxes as well, again, more tax payers.

This has been proven time and time again.  Calvin Coolidge and Andrew Mellon proved this concept in the 1920's.  JFK proved this concept in the 1960's and Ronald Reagan proved it in the 1980's.  Each cut taxes significantly, (not just a few percentage points,) and tax receipts grew as did the economy.  Now, granted this should go hand in hand with spending cuts by the government, which Coolidge did.  However, that rarely happens.  Although Reagan constantly harassed congress to cut spending, they never obliged.  Had they done so, Reagan would have run surpluses while in office instead of deficits.

I would like to finish this off with one more thought.  If we expect everyone to pay their fair share as many politicians point out.   (Sometimes the insert 'everyone' where they usually put 'rich'.)  They why is it that almost 50% of tax payers in this country pay absolutely zero income taxes.  Many of them receive refunds in excess of what their tax would have been.  How is this fair?

The Thomas Sowell Reader

I have recently read a very enlightening book The Thomas Sowell Reader by Thomas Sowell. This book contains nearly a half century of Thomas Sowells writings. Mr. Sowell brings common sense, intelligence and philosophy to social issues, economics, politics, race, and more. I highly recommend anyone who wishes to get a fresh perspective on these issues and others like them to pick up his book. I believe you will not be disappointed.

Mr. Sowell is also a regular contributor to http://www.townhall.com. If you wish to get an idea of his writings before purchasing this book then read one of his columns there.

Common Sense?

'What is wrong with everyone?' I have been thinking about this for quite a while now. Do I have the answer? Not even close. All I have is more questions. I do not understand what has happened to the simple concept of common sense that once flourished in this land. People used to know that you shouldn't put your hand under a lawn mower without turning it off first, or that hot coffee was hot, or that you couldn't spend more money than you made in a month and not run into problems. They didn't need to be told this. It was common sense. Nowadays though, common sense is dead. I don't know when it died, probably long before I even realized.

With the death of common sense comes the birth of entitlement. No longer do people wish to work for something or save up for something. Now it has to be instant gratification. If you see something you want you buy it, no matter the cost or the necessity. If you don't have the cash, charge it. Credit card maxed, borrow money from another source. If that doesn't work, complain to the government. They'll help you out.

This mentality has been brought to the forefront in recent months by the 'Occupy Wall Street' crowd. This group started out okay. They had a true gripe. The banks loaned money to people for a house they couldn't afford. After time and enough loans that went belly up, a crisis hit and the banks who made these deals ran into serious problems and the government came in and bailed them out. This is what the protesters were protesting. However, that didn't last long. Soon they started making demands. Not that the banks should close down, or should reimburse all those who lost their homes to predatory lending. No. The protesters wanted more. They wanted their homes paid for. They wanted their college education paid for. They wanted their car(s) paid for. And on and on and on. This turned from a protest with a point into a mob of lazy schlubs who wanted taken care of while they played the latest version of 'Call of Duty'.

These protests are echoes of protests taking place all over Europe. Greece is burning because the government told the people that some of their entitlements will have to be scaled back or the country will go bankrupt. The same thing is happening in France. Instead of the Greeks understanding that the government cannot pay for everything, they are rioting. Socialism is good until you run out of other peoples money. (paraphrased quote by Margaret Thatcher.) We here in America have not seen full scale riots yet, but winter is almost over and the occupy crowd vowed to be back.

One thing that all these protesters/rioters seem to not understand is that the government doesn't have any money until it takes it from someone else. Hence taxes. Another thing they do not understand is that you have to have tax payers for the government to collect those taxes. These tax payers have to make money to pay the taxes, so they have to have jobs to make money. Funny thing about entitlement minded people though is that they want, (what ever it may be), without having to work for it. The government cannot just print money and get away with it, (America is trying though, but they should remember the Wiemar Republic,) someone needs to work and make money so the government can receive a portion of that in taxes. Otherwise you end up 15+ trillion dollars in debt.

My biggest issue is how did we get here? Why did we go here? Do we think we are so great as a country that everything should be given to us? Is this what America is about? I don't think so. I understand how Europe got this way. They have had some form of socialism in their governments for many years, but this isn't America. My idea of America is of a land of opportunity where you can work at whatever job you wish, make as much or as little money as you wish, work as much or as little as you wish. If you fail, you pull yourself back up and try again. If you don't make enough to cover your bills then work some more or lessen the amount of bills you have to pay. It is not the job of the government to cover your bills. It's not the jobe of the government to bail you out if you fail. You are responsible for that. If your job doesn't pay enough, ask for a raise or find another job. No one is too big to fail.

Too many people forget what the government is supposed to do. There are a few main jobs of the government: Military, interstate commerce, infrastructure, and protecting the borders to name a few. Taxes should be just enough for the government to operate and a little extra for emergencies. No more. Taxes should not be as such that they diminish the incentive to work.

America is a great nation, but the path She is on at the moment is very dangerous. Socialism is not the answer. Socialism is destructive. There never has been, nor will there ever be a country that survives on socialism. This however is the direction the entitlement class, the occupy crowd, and even our government want to take us. All I can say is NO!!! You think it is bad now, wait till you see what it's like if we get there.

If you decide to go out and protest this spring and summer, consider if what your protesting is truly good for the country and all people or is it just good for you. Use common sense. Maybe if enough of us use it we can bring common sense back to life.