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Read other letters about this article
Interesting post. But i have to take issue with the portion of your post that says:
designed to get Obama votes at the expense of America's most educated and productive workers.
Are you suggesting that America's most educated and productive workers are the so-called "rich" top-percentage who are being disproportionately taxed?
I think that's presumptuous. I will give you the benefit of the doubt but remind you that there are many productive workers who own businesses who are NOT rich AND there are many educated people who aren't making a fortune and there are plenty of billionaires who barely graduated high school, a lot of rich people who don't work at all etc etc. That generalization is not only false, it ignores the fact that some of the most productive workers in the country (MOST) are NOT in the "disproportionately taxed" tax category - but barely eek by a living. Some are even well-educated!
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As to the substance of your article i think that there is a delicate balance that somehow needs to be achieved. I'm actually a libertarian so I believe government should be small. However, unlike 1776, we are a very large country now and we have some real problems that cannot be effectively dealt with in a true free market system. Counting on people doing the right thing is naive, especially in our society where wealth at nearly any cost is so highly valued.
I understand that the richest in America pay the most MONEY, dollar for dollar and percentage-wise. I get that. But if I earn, say, 20 million and pay 10 million in taxes (50% OUCH!) isn't that very different than someone who earns 20,000 paying only 3,000 (15%)? From a practical standpoint how does one live on 17,000? Is it possible to live very comfortably on 10 million? That's why the disparity doesn't seem unfair to many middle- and lower- income Americans. While the dollar amount and percentage is greater, it doesn't (or shouldn't) effect quality of life.
If you're talking about corporations being taxed, which I think you are, i can tell you that as a business owner, the best thing that could happen for my business would be to increase my working capital and reinvestiment/growth capital by implementing a SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE SYSTEM similar to medicare - so I can offer my employees health insurance without it costing me 30% of my budget! I could hire more people, pay the ones I have a better wage....things i really value.
The next best thing would be the guarantee of USEFUL education to ALL Americans through the bachelor's level so I can hire AMERICAN employees instead of those from China and India...Americans who ARE educated and can compete on a global level.
While I don't believe a government should DO EVERYTHING for its people, we're too far gone as a society for anything that looks remotely Libertarian. And the money has to come from somewhere.
