We’re missing billions in taxes each year. That’s partly why our roads and transit systems are falling apart. (Mural by graffiti artist Alec Monopoly /
Credit: aisletwentytwo | Flickr
If you find yourself traveling this summer, take a closer look at America’s deteriorating infrastructure — our crumbling roads, sidewalks, public parks, and train and bus stations.
Government officials will tell us “there’s no money” to repair or properly maintain our tired infrastructure. Nor do we want to raise taxes, they say.
But what if billions of dollars in tax revenue have gone missing?
New research suggests that the superrich are hiding their money at alarming rates. A study by economists Annette Alstadsaeter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman reports that households with wealth over $40 million evade 25 to 30 percent of personal income and wealth taxes.
These […]
certain social ills maintain their consistency..greed grows exponentially..like the poet said, “steal a loaf of bread and they’ll give ya life..steal all the wealth and they’ ll make you a king”..i paraphrase due to poverty..i can’t afford to be wasting time…too busy dodging authority..they fear i’ll ask for what’s mine..excuse my digression…it’s a hunger i hide..no place at that table ..where those obsessed with excess dine..slainte’:)
The greed of the super rich is an illness and it is as addictive as heroin; they just cannot get enough. They also do not care about their own country and what happens to the poor and all lower income people. They should be put in jail for what they do when whey hide their income offshore or move their headquarters of their companies to other countries to avoid taxes in the country they live in, even though they reap the benefits of living in this beautiful country.
Rev. Dean makes a good point, but I wonder if there is another facet to this. Imagine a flat tax, no progressive taxes at all? Might that eliminate the rationalization the rich use? Imagine a Europe style VAT that grabs a share of money exchanged for anything? We assume a progressive tax is ethical, but I have to wonder. If government is the result of me assigning my innate rights to the government (e.g., self defense becomes military and police), then how can I assign a right I do not possess? I cannot tell Schwartz that he has too much money and he should give some to me. If he volunteers that is his right. But it isn’t my right to tell him he must pay more because he is rich. So I wonder if the greed seen, and we do see it, is a by-product of the greed by the rest of us who don’t have money to get more of the rich person’s wealth?