I'm mostly a capitalist, but I believe that many Marxist principles are true (marginalization, stratification, elitism), and I also believe that markets should be highly regulated (by the government), there should be less focus on supply-side economics and that corporations should pay their fair share in taxes. I also believe that most tax loopholes should be abolished, and that income tax should be truly progressive. So here are a group of conservatives who want me, as a fairly successful business owner, to pay less taxes, they want more people to buy my company's services, and they don't want to my profits to be restricted in any way. My question is mostly to the uber-Capitalistas: why are you fighting to hard to make me richer?
Perhaps they are also business owners and want to maximize their profit. Perhaps they hope to one day be business owners and hope to maximize their profit when that happens. Perhaps they have no aspirations of being business owners but believe that those who put the time, energy, and risk into starting and running a business should reap the rewards. I have zero love for multi-billion dollar corporations. Be it a company or a government, I abhor wealth and power being pooled in that way. I do, however, think small owner operated type business should get every tax break possible.
I agree. . .as long as there is a very specific definition for what "small owner operated business" really consists of. Currently, very large conglomerates are reaping advantages that should be limited to small business, and are in fact working AGAINST small businesses because of the money and power they enjoy. Loopholes can make any billionaire look like a "small business owner!" (although he may own 120 of those "small businesses!"
Many, if not most, people don't want to pay taxes. Most people want to make more money. These facts shouldn't be excuses to shirk our social responsibility. One can profit in this world while paying taxes. Why are poor people fighting for my rights? Why are lobby groups trying to get me more loopholes? I don't need or want any of it. I think that many people would be surprised at how little many of the super-wealthy actually contribute to society. The poor person who buys a home and gets a mortgage may end up paying $200,000 for a $100,000 home in the end. A rich person just pays cash -- no mortgage and $5K in legal fees at most. There are many people championing business owners like me. They want to give us loopholes and have us pay less taxes to increase our incentive. However, I don't mind paying taxes, or increased taxes if my company becomes more profitable. Warren Buffet says the same thing: he doesn't like the fact that his secretary is paying a higher tax rate than he is, and this guy knows business as well as anyone. I'm on his side. My business excites me and I would do it regardless of how much I money I made or how much I paid in taxes. I don't need people wasting their time trying to make my life better. I believe in regulated markets and progressive taxation. I believe that rich people should pay more. I believe in everything they hate, yet they still fight to improve my quality of life while they live in poverty. I don't understand it. I qualify for many loopholes, but there are still many that I don't qualify for because my business is not that big. I would never qualify for "corporate welfare", but I have gotten offers from venture capital groups -- all of which I turned down. I agree that there is so much focus on giving benefits to big business that smaller businesses may suffer. But, I also think that the people who support these huge businesses are also suffering. Walmart got about $1 billion in subsidies a few years ago despite being one of the most profitable businesses in the US. Why is that? Why is anyone, let alone poor people, fine with this? There are many prosperous countries that have real progressive personal taxes and tax their corporations too. I have actually seen no evidence that taxation decreases incentive. In fact, I've seen the opposite. For example, Reagan introduced his trickle-down bill in 1986 and then the US had it's biggest recession it had ever seen 1989.
I trust this is only feigned ignorance and not genuine. What you are wondering at is how anyone could support policies that benefit others greatly, but not themselves. Kind of like: Why would a man want to prevent insurance companies from charging women more for healthcare? Why would a man support abortion rights? Why would a straight guy support gay rights? Why would a woman oppose the draft, when only men are drafted? Why would a rich man care about the poor? These are in essence the same question as you have asked, but I trust these don't bewilder you.
Somewhat. I honestly don't understand why they want to put more money into the pockets of those who are wealthier than they are, especially without sufficient evidence that it will trickle back their way. I see people on this forum aggressively insist that taxation is illegal, or coercive, or that it's "violent theft". I don't mind paying taxes and pulling my social weight, but they belligerently demand that I not only pay less on my capital gains and income (depending on how I'm 'paid'), but that my company also gets tax breaks. They fail to realize the communitarianism of wealth -- rich people can't exist unless poor people exist. Wealth is no created in a vacuum, it's a product of a capitalist society as a machine that is geared to create wealth... but this wealth-producing machine needs to be funded. I have found many rich men who care about the poor, and demonstrated it philanthropically. I don't find many poor people who care about he rich, and who are willing to take money out of their wallet and give it to a millionaire to help him out. Yet, that's effectively what they are fighting for. I think if they saw the praxis of their ideas, they may change their minds. Do they look like wealthy people? I honestly don't understand why beneficiaries of taxation would oppose taxation. I believe what is best for them is to pay less taxes than me if they make less money than me. I don't want them fighting to save me money. At the risk of seeming like a bigot, the poor seem to be particularly gullible and it's a shame that so many of them are convinced that making me richer will make them richer, as if resources are infinite. But, they're not infinite and this mistaken belief that giving to the rich will magically help everyone is why the USA is in the irreversible bind it is today, where a handful of people own half of the nation's wealth... and this trend is continuing. If the poor could be transported into the future to a time when 1% of Americans own 99% of all resources, they'd soon regret drinking the koolaid that indoctrinates them into this silly notion that rich people don't hoard. So many of them complain about government tyranny while they hand over all of their power to corporations. If Facebook keeps a large database on them, that's fine. If the government keeps a large database on them, that's unacceptable. I can't help but think of why the Irish came to the USA. No Irishman owned land (it was all owned by Englishmen, and the Irish just worked on it or rented it). The Irish had very little opportunity in Ireland because everything was owned by the English. This is exactly what is happening in the USA as the poor blindly offer more and more to the rich. Now, only 1% of the population owns 40% of the wealth. This could be quickly fixed with a truly progressive tax.
Because once upon a time Ronald Reagan said the government isn't the solution, government is the problem. This got people to think that the government was the problem. It's pretty easy to think that since Nixon was almost impeached, Ford pardoning him, and Carter and his stagflation. Then Bill Clinton came along and had to shift the pendulum to the right to deal with Conservatives in Congress. Long story short, we have shifted so far to the right, people no longer think about it, people know government isn't the solution. Even the liberals are a shadow of their former selves.
They're not, they're doing their best to put you out of business. Assuming you don't have a vast fortune you probably make most of your money by selling products or services to people. Unless you are a gold broker or a mega - yacht builder etc. (in which case I doubt you'd be here, you'd be too busy) you are in the same financial boat as most of your customers, not the Uber capitalists who mostly live off the money they already have. As long as most people have less money, they're going to buy less of your product and you, eventually, will go out of business. Supply side "economics" ONLY works after a Depression has been artificially extended for much longer than it should have been and you have "excess capacity". That is not the situation here. Belief in supply side precepts now is to believe in magic. To paraphrase Ayn Rand, "Where will the demand come from for all the products the rich are supposed to be producing with their tax savings? Somewhere." However, I think people like the Koch Bros, and all the Republicans in Congress etc, know this. My own feeling, and I have seen it actually expressed by many people on this board so it is not a "conspiracy theory", is that they want to cause civilization to collapse and then rule from the ruins. Any businessman who thinks like you say you do (that is, that they are trying to help you, not your other beliefs) is a "useful idiot" to them, and I don't think you will take offense at that, as I'm pretty sure that was your real point
And then they start paying $85bn a month cash ,to Wall Street,as capitalist Welfare ,its a criminal Heist of historic proportions . Obama , President of Wall Street for Wall Street ,walking contempt of the American People and Working Class!
