As far as I am concerned, so far this year there has not been much talk about the presidential elections regarding my friends and I. But, after the last presidential debate I have started to hear more and more people speak up, especially myself. After reading that Obama said “I don’t want to punish your success, I just want to spread it around to everyone, not just you”, I just didn’t know what to think anymore.
Is the American dream no longer rags to riches? Do we no longer yearn for the possibility to go, through hard work, from a meager financial background into a financial millionaire (or whatever you strive for). If so, do we really want to punish those that have an excess of income by taxing them more? Why shouldn’t everyone be taxed equally? What happened to regardless equality? If we start to do this, where is the incentive to work your way into these positions? I just can’t understand how the “sharing of wealth” is expected to be successful when we have seen time and time again that this idea does in fact fail. Yes, there are certain things that need to be government supported. We do need welfare, we need Medicare/Medicaid as well as many other things and we need taxes to support these. But why should it come more so at the expense of the higher tax bracket, when they don’t even need these benefits?
5 comments:
I agree with you. The current tax system is set up as a progressive tax structure that taxes people according to their ability to pay- leave it alone. Spending should be cut so the government doesn't have to raise taxes on successful individuals. That's John McCain's goal.
I also agree with the current tax system, but I also think that the very rich could afford to give up some of their money. Yes, they worked hard to earn it and shouldn't be punished for being successful, but do they really need the millions upon millions of dollars that they have? Couldn't they sacrifice some more of their money in hopes of righting the current economic downturn?
The last time someone said something similar to what Obama said I believe was some guy named Karl Marx.
If this doesn't disrupt his campaign, or give the Obama "brand" (by brand I mean it's cool to vote for him) than I feel that I'll unfortunately have to begin believing that Americans are actually stupid. Adolf Hitler (not the best guy to quote but it is a good qoute) once said that it is so fortunate for politicians to rule over those who don't think.
Speaking of Obama's tax plan, go around and talk to some small business owners about how they feel on the effects of this proposed tax plan.
Further, in response to Mr. Pletcher's response, when does it stop? The increase of taxation on the rich, in my opinion, will be a snowball effect. The economic downturn is not all on the rich's shoulders. The problem resides in the predatorial banks and loan providers that distributed unreasonable loans. Do you really need the money that you have? Is it right to say one deserves what they have earned and own more than another? No. The country was built on the "American Dream", or that we can, as Mr. Frankum put it so eloquently, go from rags to riches. If you take that away from this country, we're no better than anyone else.
It could be a snowball effect, I agree, but that's the slippery slope fallacy. We don't know if just this one tax increase on the wealthy will lead to more increases in the future. It's completely possible, but we have no way of knowing.
Shouldn't Americans look after one another? Can't a person only make 20 million instead of 25 million, so some others that aren't so fortunate have it a little easier? I agree that complete equality and "spreading the wealth around" is wrong, but if the rich can still afford 8 houses after a tax increase, it's not hurting them too bad.
In regards to believing Americans are stupid, my government teacher in high school would say the two things that could bring down democracy is ignorance and apathy. I believe that's completely true, and I also have a hard time believing Americans aren't either ignorant or apathetic.
Post a Comment