Reforming America: Tax Equity

If 5% of the population controls 95% of the wealth in the nation wouldn’t it make sense that the same 5% of the population should pay 95% of the taxes? For some reason Washington doesn’t get that. When you leave 95% of your population to divide up 5% of the nation’s wealth they should not be the ones paying for the infrastructure to run the nation. With such a small piece of the pie to meet all of their needs the majority of Americans should not be paying taxes on the pittance that they earn. Conversely, with the obscene amount of money that is in their hands, the wealthy should be responsible for meeting the needs of the nation.

Right now the debate is raging in Washington over whether or not to extend the tax cuts instituted under George W. Bush for all including the ultra-wealthy. At the same time the people screaming for extending the cuts are crying about the federal budget deficit. The hypocrisy of this is staggering. It’s not surprising though considering the fact that the people calling for the extension of the tax cuts for the rich and cuts to services for the poor are rich themselves. They couch it all in doublespeak about strengthening the national economy when they know full well that it will only strengthen the economy for the wealthy. I guess they figure that since the working class and poor don’t really get them elected they don’t really matter.

We as voters and workers need to make a stand. We need to demand tax equity from our leaders or remove them from power. If the people pulling their strings won’t pay their fair share willingly then they need to be forced to do so. If it takes a national work stoppage to get the point across that we are tired of shouldering the burden for the opulence of the wealthy then we need to do it. We need to walk away from our jobs en-masse and refuse to work until the wealthy are forced to give back to the people who made them wealthy in the first place.

When our children shiver in under-heated classroom and learn from decades-old textbooks because some rich people think their money would be better spent on a new Bentleys than providing for the future of our nation it is time for drastic change. We can no longer tolerate the inequities of the current system in silence. We are the ones who do the vast majority of the work and we deserve to see more of the benefits from our work. The CEOs and Board Chairmen need to understand that we know how little they actually do and we don’t believe that they are worth millions of dollars a year in salary. They are not responsible for the entire nation so why should they make more money than the President? Frankly, it seems to me that nobody should earn more than the President because nobody other than the President is responsible for more people’s lives. Maybe we should tax every CEO to the point that they earn no more than the President each year. That would solve a lot of budget problems pretty much immediately.

Whatever the solution, keeping things as they are now is not the answer. The rich need to pull their own weight and give back to the system commensurate with what they get from the system. Because of our system the wealthy see immense benefit every year while the system does almost nothing to help millions of Americans working hard but barely staying afloat. We need to bring equity to the system no matter what it takes. The majority needs to rule in this nation and that is not the case today. The current government is one of the wealthy, by the wealthy and for the wealthy. We need to get back to a government of the people, by the people and for the people by any means necessary. If that means the redistribution of wealth by force then so be it. When those who enjoy the benefits of our labor forget about the people who do all the work, they no longer deserve to enjoy the benefits of our labor.

Troy Wilson-Ripsom | Staff Writer | E-mail Comments on this column. | Click icon to Digg this article

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