It doesn’t matter if the wealthiest 5% of the people in this country control 70, 80, or 90% of this country’s wealth. It doesn’t matter if they pay more taxes at a slightly higher rate. What matters is how you define greed.
Sin taxes are governmental levies on perceived evil substances such as tobacco and alcohol. People feel comfortable hitting those products with extra taxes because, hey, we all know booze and tobacco are bad for you. We’re just helping you out by making these products more expensive to buy. It’s called negative reinforcement. If you smoke or drink, it’s going to hurt you in the pocketbook when you buy them.
Not only do tobacco and alcohol hurt you, they also harm those who come into contact with smokers and boozers.
Isn’t greed something society should help its citizens overcome? Not only is greed bad for the individual, but greed harms society as well.
Greed is one of the seven deadly sins.
Ask any good Bible reading Christian. Greed is bad. Greed is a sin.
Let’s tax greed. If we don’t tax greed, we might as well not tax tobacco and liquor. Smoking and drinking don’t even make it onto the top seven sin list. Greed is not good.
Back in the glory days of the 50s and even during the mythic days of the Gipper, the top tax rate on income was something close to twice what it is today. Somehow the rich stayed rich but surprisingly, the poor did not get poorer. The gap between the rich and the rest of the citizenry was a whole lot less than it is today. There was still greed, but it wasn’t as rewarded as it is today. Greed was taxed, seriously. And somehow this country and its people prospered.
The more you tax high incomes, the more trivial high incomes become.
It’s time to bring back the 70% top federal tax bracket. This would do wonders for the federal budget and, besides, it’s the Christian thing to do. Helping our fellow man avoid the sin of greed is probably a spiritual work of mercy.
It’s time to seriously tax the extemely rich. Greed isn’t good for any of us.
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