We can “Make the rich pay their fair share of taxes.” But it comes with a price. The rich usually keep only a minute portion of their wealth in cash, in a safe or bank. Almost all of it is invested in whatever industry made them rich. When the government increases their tax rates almost all of it must come from downsizing their business, laying off workers, and reducing the amount of goods or services they’d sell to the public at affordable prices. When the rich earn less they pay less in taxes. The laid-off workers earn no money, and pay no taxes. The economy plummets, everyone is worse off and the government collects less revenue, not more.
John F. Kennedy said, “the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now … Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.”
Robert Wassman
Vancouver
