Taxing The Wealthy Is Unfair

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

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.

There is no doubt that wealth inequality in America has been escalating quickly; the portion of total income earned by the top one percent has doubled since the beginning of the 1970’s. The wealthy are the main beneficiaries

Today in America, income and wealth inequality has continued to grow at an unsettling pace. The rich continue to get richer, while the number of people categorized as lower class grows exponentially. As Joseph Stiglitz has explained, many theories that are seen as strongly Republican, such as the trickle-down effect, has caused the rich to take money from the poor, and as a result the lower class grows and the middle class disintegrates. The top 1 percent of America’s households currently holds 30 percent of America’s economy, which is much more than other first-world countries and helps to emphasize the extremity of inequality currently in America today. This increased inequality has in turn caused America to become a much more divided society; those born in poverty typically stay in poverty, with little to no chance of self-improvement due to a lack of education provided in their areas. In contrast, those that are born wealthy typically go to better schools, have better health care, and are all but spoon fed information on how to remain wealthy. These two sides of society almost never cross, and this causes the country to be more divided than ever. In order to limit this inequality, drastic changes must be made, such as large corporations paying their fair share of taxes and giving back to the lower class, and minimum wage should be raised. If everyone in America works together, we can raise social mobility and re-unite what has become an increasingly divided country.

According to a speech given by Melancton Smith, because "The wealthy are in the habit of expensive living, they will tax the public highly and spend their money. They find no difficulty in paying their taxes, but people of the middling class do feel these difficulties. Therefore, representatives from the middling class, from their frugal habits, will be careful how they increase taxes.""Being in the habit of expensive living, they will tax the public highly and spend their money. They find no difficulty in paying their taxes, but people of the middling class do feel these difficulties. Therefore, representatives from the middling class, from their frugal habits, will be careful how they increase taxes."This means that higher class will tax the people highly, because they do not have trouble paying taxes. On the other hand, the middle class people would know the reasonable amount to tax because it is not as easy for them to pay. Also, Amos Singletary stated in his speech that, "These lawyers, and men of learning, and moneyed men, that talk so finely and gloss over matters so smoothly, to make us poor illiterate people swallow down the pill." "These lawyers, and men of learning, and moneyed men, that talk so finely and gloss over matters so smoothly, to make us poor illiterate people swallow down the pill,"This means The wealthy men talk so finely, they will get out of

America is recognized as a place where if you work hard enough you can become wealthy. In fact, the U.S. has more millionaires than any other country in the world. However, for all that prosperity, the gap between rich and poor has always been large. People have been attempting to fix this inequality for over a century now. Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who became the second richest man in America by dominating the steel industry, and Terence V. Powderly, an American attorney, labor union leader, politician, and best known as head of the Knights of Labor, were among the first to propose solutions. Carnegie’s idea, called “The Gospel of Wealth,”

The wealthy experience more advantages in life than the poor, and usually never need to worry about financial stability in their lives. Even though people in poverty may qualify for Medicaid, food stamps, and welfare, it can still be difficult for them to afford basic necessities. The rich can live lavish lifestyles, splurge money on luxuries, and use money to resolve common everyday problems. On the other hand, the less fortunate spend their time worrying about where their next meal will come from, or if they will be able to afford a place to

It is with out a doubt that in our country the United States of America the lower and middle class have the common perception that the government and the “super rich” have some kind of unknown agreement to maintain extremely lower tax rates on the “super rich”. What do the “super rich” do with all the saved money coming from the tax cut is another unknown, perhaps some luxurious new home, car, or maybe put it to work and continue getting richer. While all this may be true to some degree, one of the “super rich” elite members has stepped fourth not only once but a few time but none compare to his current attempt to make change.

In the article “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Joseph Stiglitz, a noble prize winning economist, argues that the upper 1% controls about 40% of all wealth in America. This top 1% has taken about a quarter of all income in America, and has seen their income rise about 18% in the past decade. This has made the inequality between classes in the US expand. Eventually, this inequality gap will even hurt the top 1%, because the other 99% will either fight for a bigger piece or just stop working all together. The top 1% can buy anything they need, but their fate realizes on the other 99% to work hard and not fight back. If the 99% stopped working, there would be a simple way to gain back money… that would be to raise taxes on the rich. However, the rich get rich by capital gains, which have a low tax policy. So overall, the upper percent can eventually learn, but a majority of the time it is too little too late.

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

Also many people can find ways around taxes, both legal and illegal, so they don't pay as much as they should be.

One reason the rich should be the primary provider of the poor is that they can provide insight and knowledge about how to manage money. The 19th century philanthropist and industrialist Andrew Carnegie states, “the man of wealth thus [becomes] the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves” (399). Receiving help from the government and charities may allow the poor to be able to support themselves temporarily, but the wisdom they can gain from the rich will allow them to escape poverty and reach the middle class. By the wealthy providing for the impoverished, the impoverished gain the knowledge about how to work and better themselves rather than receiving handouts from charities and the government. Because people typically learn more from someone who is more experienced, it is rational to believe poor people can learn more from a wealthy person since the wealthy person has more experience dealing with money and knows how to do it responsibly.

The United States debt and defecit is a major problem in our society. One thing I would propose to the President would be to tax the rich. Time. It's useful to keep in mind how the rich are different. When you are poor, you are willing to trade your time to earn money. When you are rich, you trade your money to get more time. For example, the rich hire people to clean their homes, and they don't waste time shopping for bargains. In business school I learned that when people have different preferences, you can usually find a way to engineer a deal. Gratitude. Imagine that the government arranges to provide genuine person-to-person gratitude to the rich in exchange for higher tax rates. Suppose (bad idea alert) the government makes it a

What do you think would happen if the rich paid more taxes? Would there be a better economy or would it be worst, maybe even stay the same. Increasing the taxes would help out our economy in a few ways. one way that it would help out our economy is that not only would there be less of a concentration of profit at the top of our social ladder there would be more revenue for the funding of civil union jobs. Also not to mention causing the bigger corporations to have to pay more so they would be unable to escape with the majority of the illegal activity they do today. Lastly if the government were to crack down on offshoring it would help with collecting taxes and the money would return to the people and back into circulation for our economy. Here are some reasons why the rich should pay higher taxes.