MACKOWIAK: Makers, takers and occupiers
26th October 2011
Indeed, two Americas do exist: the makers and the takers.
No one should prejudge the patriotism of any American, but your station in life informs your own political views.
Consider today’s economic reality. Last year, 47 percent of Americans paid no federal income tax. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that nearly half (48.5 percent) of all Americans received “some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010,” according to census data, making American families “more dependent on government programs than ever.”
Those Americans – call them “takers,” a crude term but one that accurately describes them as receiving more from government than they contribute – do not have a direct personal interest in fiscal responsibility, limited government or reduced spending. In fact, their livelihoods depend on the “gravy train” continuing uninterrupted.
For the Americans whose income levels require them to pay income taxes – call them the “makers” – they have a discrete and clear interest in taxes remaining low and in government being made leaner and more efficient. This dynamic has been described in Patrick J. Buchanan’s new best-selling book, “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?”
Today, the top 1 percent of all income earners account for 40 percent of the federal taxes. If you confiscated every penny earned by the top 1 percent, you would gain about $1 trillion, wiping out these productive Americans and still not balancing the budget.
October 26th, 2011 at 09:57
On the other hand, the top 1% accounted for 40% of all earned income, so the picture is not quite as skewed as the article would suggest.
At the same time, the bottom 50% accounted for 12.5% of all income, so consfiscating ALL of the earnings of that 50% would yield less than 1/3 of confiscating the income of that top 1%.
When you want to pull a wagon for a long haul, you don’t hitch up the colts and the runts. You find the biggest, strongest horses and put ’em in harness.