Wealth and Taxes
published in the Spring 2005 Freedom Xpress

Who would want to pay more taxes? You might think it’s a crazy thing to suggest, but here is my reasoning behind it.

Why should the wealthy & middle class pay more taxes?

• We’ve had a graduated tax schedule for many years, the wisdom of which has been firmly established: We can tax the poor, but they have no money to start with and the majority of their income pays for necessities.
• Fully 70% of all Americans alive today have received some sort of means-based assistance. If your parents were not rich, you have benefited from programs that allowed your parents more money to spend on you.
• Likely others at least partially paid for your education via their taxes.
• The tax writeoff of your mortgage interest applies only to those who own homes – the bigger your mortgage, the larger your tax subsidy.
• The tax on your business is only on the net profits – unlike the worker who gets taxed on nearly ALL income.
• The wealthier you are, the MORE you are dependent upon the national infrastructure to retain your wealth.

Probably the most controversial thing to say is that the wealthy are more dependent than the poor. But let’s think about that for a minute. Suppose the government becomes weak and perhaps goes bankrupt, or worse, gets usurped. What happens if you’re poor? Not much. You continue to live day-to-day trying to scratch out a living as best you can. Now what happens if you’re rich? The money and personal worth that you’ve worked for and saved becomes devalued, stocks and retirement funds may become worthless, and there is no one around to purchase your assets, or the products or services that you used to provide. You become much less wealthy and perhaps even poor! So as a wealthy person you are dependent upon a stable nation and infrastructure in order to retain your wealth.

Paying more taxes than someone who makes less than I do is more for MY benefit due to the simple fact that I have more to lose.  An unstable, ineffective government leads to poor performance and affects my investments and assets. An untrained, uneducated and unhealthy population leads to lower productivity and instability. I want to pay taxes because I want a stronger government with high-quality services and infrastructure, because I am middle class, and want to stay that way!

- Race Dowling