Krugman against the rich
9th September 2010
Tom Smith puts the boot in.
It’s a perfectly obvious point, but perhaps still worth making. When the government does not tax some income of a very rich person, that is not a “giveaway”. That is the government not taking some money that was earned by some rich person. Some people have a lot of money. When you take their money from them, it is their money you are taking. Indeed, this is what thousands of pages of tax law goes to determine: Is it income? Is it your income? If it is neither yours nor income then it won’t be taxed as part of your income tax. It is the most annoying thing tax people do — referring to income the government does not take from you as something it has given to you.
However little the rich may deserve their wealth, the government deserves it even less.