Tax The Rich Annotated Bibliography

James Madison once stated inequality of the rich and poor predicament to be “evil” and believed that the government should avoid an “immoderate, and especially unmerited, accumulation of riches” (Johnston, 2016). As one of the founding fathers of our nation, James Madison had a concern about the separation between the rich and the poor. He felt the government should do what it could to avoid the separation, which one can infer that he meant for the government to tax the rich by a greater percentage, thus reducing the financial burden on the poor. A rift has always been present between the rich and the poor throughout history. Depending upon the job, the working class may or may not make enough to support a family. At this point, the

If the United States are going to tax people, then they should tax everyone fairly. Corporate welfare can be as close to those, who shouldn't receive food stamps, or people like panhandlers, who pay no taxes for the money they receive. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, “American Fortune 500 corporations are avoiding up to $600 billion in U.S. federal income taxes by holding more than $2.1 trillion” of retained profits offshore, which they identify as “permanently reinvested” to stay away from a tax liability. Millionaires and Billionaires as well regularly pay less in taxes than a middle class American. Huffington Post states that millionaires and billionaires benefit from tax loopholes, deductions, deferrals and other types of accounts. This show’s corruptness and unfairness because the 1 percent continues to profit while the 99 percent pay most of all the taxes. The 99 percent of the people struggle to pay the bills while the 1 percent worries about what sports car they will buy next. In addition, when Wall Street fails, the taxpayers have to pay for their damages. For example, Millions of taxpayers lost their jobs due to the 2008-2009 Wall Street collapse, yet they are unwilling to pay additional taxes to pay for education and healthcare for the people who bailed them out. The United States should eliminate corporate welfare until they agree

Although many Americans believe the top one percent should have higher tax rates there are also many people who believe that the wealthy pay more than their fair share of taxes.

If the government starts doing that it would be fairer because everyone is getting the right amount of tax based on their income. But right now the rich and poor have to pay the same amount of money and it doesn’t matter about their income. Right now the rich should not really care about the taxes because they are rich and it doesn’t matter to them. But the taxes do matter to the poor people because they have really less amount of income and a large amount of taxes will affect them. The government has all records of people’s incomes and other information, so if the government makes a rule that the people with more income pay more taxes and the people with less income pay fewer taxes, it would be much better. But the taxes go to the government and the government makes the America better by making newer roads, better environment, and

Amity Shlaes talks about how presidents such as Nixon, and Bush removed millions of Americans from the tax bracket completely and that those same exact people don’t want a proportional tax rate and want to tax the rich because “they can afford it”. That just seems unfair and unjust. The first video was very opinionated saying that the rich now make more money than before, of course they have the money now due to war times & depressions being over however, the less money they have the less likely they’re to make more investments into other things such as creating more offices, and hiring more people to work for their company

"The most perennially political issues in the United States is the question of how much Americans should be taxed. Indeed, discounted over taxes was one of the major motivating factors in the revolution that established the United States as an independent nation"("Extending Tax Cuts", 1). Since taxes are one of the biggest topics in politics, there is always going to be two sides of the subject, and Taxes will always strike controversy in our country. The topic of having the rich pay more in tax has a deep history to consider, and there will always be both supporters and critics who continue to debate this topic.

This week the reading by Frank in the Inequality Reader caught my attention. It talked about how the current tax system in the US is not conducive to helping society. It also mentions how an increase in taxes for the top earners would help not only the poor but also the rich. He also includes how the wealthy “have been made worse off, on balance, by recent tax cuts” (Frank 732). This reading made me think of the current GOP tax plan being signed and debated in congress.

While those making near the median income of $51,939 per year fall into the 25% tax bracket, taxpayers making over $413,200 per year pay 39.6% of their income to the government. Though heavily taxing the wealthy may seem to offer a solution to the ongoing economic woes, it has quite the opposite effect. For instance, many of the citizens who have a yearly income of over $413,200 own small and medium-sized businesses, which comprise a crucial part of our nation's economy. Because these private business owners are burdened by such high tax rates, they often have to pay their employees less and refrain from creating new jobs. Even more importantly, progressive taxation undermines the very fundamentals upon which the United States of America was founded by attempting to redistribute wealth through socialism. Our current tax system effectively strips individuals of their incentive to pursue entrepreneurship and positive economic development. In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson stated, “A wise and frugal government… shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” I am utterly disgusted at the way our government has blatantly disregarded the tenets of

There has always been a large amount of discussion on the topic of the federal income tax. Specifically, the discussions have revolved around how exactly the people should be taxed. There are several ways in which tax rates can be determined, and all of them have some form of a strong argument behind them. The flat tax is the best option as, by nature, it is the most fair. Tax rates are measured by percentages, and when taxes are collected by percentages, the wealthy are already paying more money than the poor. For example, if a flat tax rate of 20% is in place, and one person has an annual income of $150,000 while another person has an annual income of $40,000. The person who has the income of $150,000 is paying $30,000 in taxes while

There is an issue that has plagued the United States even prior to the founding of the nation. That issue is fair taxation. While the American Colonists were being taxed unfairly without parliamentary representation, average modern Americans are being taxed unfairly without legal representation. Some hold the belief that the progressive tax code employed by the United States to be fair as the wealthy pay a higher marginal tax rate. The operative word there being marginal. As the upper class typically has a much lower effective tax rate since they are able to afford tax attorneys who are able to find many deductions that average citizens are unaware of. Mitt Romney is a prime example of low effective rates of taxation. According to CNN Money, Mitt Romney made twenty-one million dollars in one year, but only paid an effective rate of fifteen percent, which is much lower than the rate he should be paying. The progressive tax system is one that is littered with loopholes, but those are only known to those with the means to search them out as the federal tax code spans seventy-thousand of pages of convoluted text. Not even the highest paid tax accountants will ever read anywhere near the full volume of tax laws. By the tax code being as long as it is, few are able to reap the full benefits of the tax code. The level of complicated text is not the only major issue with the federal tax code.

Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, wrote, “I have NEVER met a motivated person who has said they would not chase their goals because of tax rates.” (Cuban) Warren Buffet has pledged to give away 99 percent of his wealth. Bill Gates now dedicates his life and wealth to philanthropy. On the other hand, of course, it is not hard to find a rich person that feels victimized by the tax code. When President Obama proposed a tax increase on private equity firms, billionaire Steve Schwarzman said, “It’s a war. It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.” (Alter) Steve Wynn, whose stock had risen 578 percent since Obama’s inauguration, said on a conference call in 2011, “I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the

Another reason that the wealthy should pay more taxes is because they owe it to society to do so. Every person wouldn’t be where they are today without the people who helped raise them and the society they were raised in. In “The Great Gatsby”, Nick Carraway is disgusted with Tom and Daisy, “Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 179). Nick is repelled by how Tom and Daisy, with all of their money, would do nothing to help the society or other people. Successful people are largely successful due to the society and conditions that they were raised in. Without the better conditions that they were luckily born into, it is logical to question just how successful someone in the top one or ten percent could have been. In a recent commencement speech last summer at Princeton, author Michael Lewis stated “Recognize that if you have had success, you also have had luck—and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your Gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky”. In a

Two important factors that determine a workers' income, regardless of their class, are their race and gender. Minority groups as well as women are less likely to receive an income they deserve, regardless of the job. They are seen as less educated and less capable of doing certain jobs, and they are restricted in advancing and achieving a more suitable income. Only the top capitalists, white males, are receiving the bulk of the nation's income revenue and all the benefits that come along with it. They are the richest people of the United States and instead of being taxed like everyone else, they are allowed even more lee-way. "There is a solution to this problem that will save small farms and businesses, eliminate the ‘death tax' for all Americans and still preserve the integrity of the federal budget: Tax the net worth of the very richest Americans on a regular basis during their lifetime" (Eitzen & Leedham pg. 40). The already rich continue to earn more and more money with their jobs, and they are not being taxed in proportion to their income. They have gotten away with accumulating more of the nation's wealth, while others struggle to make it in life.

The way the tax affects the poor does not seem fair. The way the tax affects a large chuck on the middle class does not seem fair. In reality, the way the tax treats anyone making equal to or less than $110,100 does not seem fair. Taxes affect

One of the significant reasons to tax the rich more is because of how much they pay in taxes. Even though the rich are the ones that have the most, they should as well be the ones that give the most.This would easily be assumed but that is not the case. Specifically, information from “Do the Rich Pay Lower Taxes than the Middle Class?” by Robert Frank shows this. As well it gives many examples of how much the rich pay in taxes compared to low-income people. “The poorest 20 percent of Americans paid an average of 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes and the middle 20 percent of Americans paid 9.4 percent. The top 1 percent, meanwhile, pay only 5.4 percent of their income in state and local taxes.” Overall that is a big difference