Winston Churchill said that a nation that tries to tax itself into prosperity is like a man trying to fly by standing in a bucket and pulling the handle. These sort of statements show why he never gained a reputation for wit and remained a minor British politician.
Wealth is like a pie and everyone deserves a slice. Right now, a few rich people get most of it and everyone else gets what’s left. Some only get crumbs. The pie needs to be sliced more fairly. There is only so much money out there, so no one can get richer unless someone else gets poorer. This is why our bank accounts get smaller anytime someone wins the lottery. Right-wing nut jobs will tell you that poverty is caused by poor decisions and bad luck, but the truth is it is rich people who push down the poor. Life is better in countries like China and Cuba where the government takes control. That way the common people, not the rich, are in charge. Or just look at Zimbabwe, Africa’s most prosperous country. There, the government went even further. It printed lots of money and gave it to the poor, and everyone became rich because money is the same as wealth.
Taxing the rich is good for everybody. That’s why the most prosperous period in US history was the 1930s when the top tax rate was 77%. This why the period of FDR’s presidency is called The Great Prosperity. If the government needs more money, it should just raise taxes. The rich people will grumble, but they will pay up because rich people never, ever try to avoid paying taxes by earning less or hiding their money overseas. Also, every time the government raises taxes, the extra money is used to pay down the debt, which reduces the amount of money the government needs to create. This is why everything is cheaper now than 100 years ago and why old people always talk about how a dollar used to be worth a lot less.
Anyone who disagrees just doesn’t understand economics.
Comments
90 responses to “Fair Share”
Looks like I’m all ready for 2017 now.
This should be an Onion article, however half of its readers wouldn’t understand the obvious silliness of the assertions.
Progs would be linking it to their comrades.
No doubt. Many readers would post to FB and ask, “when did the Onion start doing real commentary?”
The Onion can stick to what it does best: predict the future, unintentionally.
Exactly!
You should put a /sarcasm in there, otherwise someone might get cornfused… *Bacon.
No…Derp is who wrote it. I just did it to confuse you. *vanishes in cloud of vapor*
Vapor? Not bacon grease? How unsatisfying.
Bacon can be converted to anything by process of magic™.
Is that what you call digestion?
You digest wood products. Phallus shaped.
bacon vape cloud magic!
Derp.
He left off the numbering, how am I supposed to pick out the not?
Bring back the numbering system that is not just a sermon! *bangs wand against monitor*
It’s Derp Knots all the way down.
The immediate left-wing counter to that is that rates were as high, if not higher, in more prosperous times post-WWII, therefore proving at least that high tax rates on the wealthy have no impact on overall national prosperity.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but I will for the benefit of anyone looking to pick a fight: I don’t agree with the above sentiment. I’m only saying what I believe their immediate retort would be.
Of course leaving out that nobody paid the 90% and that we didn’t have Medicaid or Medicare in that time period.
And that many of the world’s largest and most prosperous nations were still trying to recover from the millions of deaths and annihilated infrastructure brought on by WWII
So…uh, we just need to re-nuke Japan and slag a bunch of German cities!
Need to level a few English and French towns at the same time. Oh, and to modernize the plan we need to displace a hundred million Chinese for good measure.
OK, so the FULL plan it is!
Do you have a better plan?
1. Collect underpants
2. ?
3. Profit!
I stand corrected.
The self sustaining economy.
They have no impact when you can dodge taxes easily (responding to your imaginary leftist, not you).
Wait, are you implying the wealthiest demographic in our society would write tax laws that appear to tax the wealthiest demographic when they really just write loopholes into those laws that allow them to dodge those taxes and loot the demographic that has the bulk of the country’s wealth?
I am confused. Why would they do that?
Jonah Norberg had a good reply over at the other site; namely that Sweden (for one) had rescinded it’s confiscatory tax regime which hindered growth in then 60’s and 70’s.
Dude, there are Laffer curves that put the optimal tax rate at 70% with the assumption that if enough goods and services are provided through public funds people basically look at after-tax income as discretionary. I think it’s a load, but there are people who will use that to rebut arguments against high taxes.
Like all socialist schemes it looks decent in the beginning but those goods and services degrade quickly. The 70% tax rate kills investment and production. In other words, socialism always runs out of other people’s money. Every socialist scheme ever shows just how hard it is to get rid of once people start getting free shit. It has to degrade pretty badly before they give it up. Look at Venezuela. The citizens of the once prosperous country are digging in garbage cans to find food and they still have a socialist government. It usually has to come to blood.
“In other words, socialism always runs out of other people’s money.”
If a socialist nation ever ran out of money, all they would have to do is tax the rich some more and/or print more money. God, it’s like you WANT the poor to die in the streets or something!
I think an economist actually checked how many people paid that rate and it was like 15 people. Not surprising.
I remember seeing contemporary descriptions in some Nero Wolfe stories:
Further analysis of Nero and marginal rates can be found in this blog post.
The scary part is not that I think it was all satire. The scary part is that I think it’s 90% satire and I am simply not sure which parts were true.
I’m gonna need to lie down for a minute.
The rich aren’t paying their fair share. If they were they wouldn’t be rich.
That’s not fair. *pouts* Hey wait a minute…pout, poutine? Is poutine made from petulant orphans? Rufus, you got some cansplaining to do Hoser!
brilliant.
Who would object to paying their fair share?
I’m guessing, just about everyone who didn’t get to say what their fair share was.
Well the fair share is a 6% single land tax. I read that in another place on this very website.
Well the fair share is a 6% single land tax.
Sez you.
It printed lots of money and gave it to the poor, and everyone became rich because money is the same as wealth.
I like money.
Haulin’ ass, gettin’ paid.
I can’t believe you like money too. We should hang out.
Is the answer Hitler?
Always and never.
You know who else thought that Hitler was the answer?
“There is only so much money out there, ” – because we don’t print enough of it. Otherwise we would all be billionaires or, dare I say, trillionaires.
+$100Trillion Zimbabwe
I bought a Zimbabwe $100 trillion note (for $5 I think, on Ebay) and when the package arrived, my son brought it to me and asked me what it was. I told him that I thought it was a hundred trillion dollars. He challenged that, and then I bet him five bucks that I was right.
I hope I don’t lose libertarian cred for this, but I didn’t have the heart to collect.
1) Remove Heart
2) Collect your moneys!
Ahem.
As if anyone trusts the tags anymore after you put a story about a massive clitoris in ‘Fun’.
Please don’t bring up SugarFree posts outside of those posts.
I can avoid SugarFree’s articles easier than I can random references to them…
If we spent all our time censoring ourselves based on what UnCivilServant doesn’t like this is going to become a Warhammer 40k fan blog pretty quickly.
I only asked politely.
I have no ability to make you comply.
I’m actually surprised the response was not “Fuck you” or “fuck you, cut spending”
Aah man, you don’t find a six inch clitoris fascinating? I had only heard of them from friends after they vacationed in Pattaya. I thought the article was quite informative.
SF’s avatar is all the tag you need. It’s a great piece of truth in advertising: if you see that avatar and then continue to read anyway, knowing full well that he is plotting against his readers with all the nefarious intent of Snidely Whiplash, any harm inflicted upon you by his prose is your own fault.
Man is this primate smart.
“That’s why the most prosperous period in US history was the 1930s when the top tax rate was 77%.”
Pft. The 1950s had it at 90%!
Amazing how this – like the moronic 97% consensus – is still used with a straight face by progressives.
Poutine is people!!
I like pie. Did I mention that? As such I think I am entitled to e bigger slice. You greedy bastards are eating all my pie. It’s not fair. I’m gonna tell Bernie!
no one needs a slice of pie when there are starving children-
wait…
*wanders off*
Mmmmm. Strawberry-rhubarb pie.
*drools*
No one needs that flavor of pie. Real pie has kidneys in it.
Nobody needs 28 types of pie while there are starving children.
I’m more than willing to pay my fair share. My fair share is directly proportional to the services I voluntarily use. Probably about three-fiddy when all is said and done.
lets see. yeah, gas tax.
Thank god. Finally, a man willing to talk sense.
Am I the only person here who knows people actually this economically ignorant? The thing I still can’t figure out is, how do you actually argue with them? It’s like trying to argue with someone who insists that things fall up. There’s not even a logical basis to start a conversation from.
I throw books. not very successful, but sometimes people will at least consider it.
No. I was discussing a change in taxation one time to someone, and used math to prove that the hypothetical person living at the poverty line would be better off, and the response I got was, “The math seems right, but it doesn’t feel right.”
Feelz > Realz
That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about stars to dispute it.
No you are not. I know people who would make these arguments, and they are approaching retirement age, if not already there. I am sure you can guess who they voted for.
Gov. Johnson?
This why the period of FDR’s presidency is called The Great Prosperity.
Hey, FDR was just cleaning up Coolidge/Hoover’s mess. It is known.
That’s why FDR doubled all hoover did. Hoover just didn’t go far enough.
Am I the only person here who knows people actually this economically ignorant?
I regret to report, you are not.
I also know people who steadfastly believe massive tariffs will make us all fabulously wealthy. So, I got that going for me.
It’s like trying to argue with someone who insists that things fall up
“Stand right on this big “X”. I’ve got to run upstairs for a minute. Now, what did I do with that cannon ball?”
If they’re standing on a big red X, shouldn’t you be drop anvils on them to complete the Loony Tunes feeling?
I am the proud owner of a 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwean banknote. My retirement plan is to move to Zimbabwe and live a life similar to the one that Eddie Murphy’s prince character did at the end of Coming to America. It’s going to be so frigging great.
I have one of those around here, I gave my little brother a smaller note, still in the trillions. He isn’t old enough to really dig into economics, but I’m hoping it was just enough of a curiosity piece to pique his interest.
Nice. They are actually quite nice looking notes. I paid 4 bucks for mine and it appears to be a decent investment as I saw them recently for 10 bucks. Maybe I will have to scale down my African retirement. Ok, maybe only two female bathing attendents are really necessary.
never enough concubines.
OT:
If people are allowed to talk about European kickball, I can waste one post to gloat about college hoops:
TCU 85, Kansas 82.
Woohoo!!
This was supposed to be in the evening links thread. Rookie mistake, oh well.
The only downside to this series of articles Derpetologist has been delivering of late is the knowledge that they were written before this site went online, meaning that the blistering pace of their production must inevitably slow.
A+ satire.
I just noticed: Is that cat’s monocle chain coming out of it’s anus?
Very good Derp.