Warren Buffett, a billionaire, admits outright that our tax code is not fair. Apparently our luxuriantly wealthy Mr. Buffett pays a lower tax rate on his money than his secretary or house cleaner does and, to his own admittance, that’s just not right. I would agree.
Our American value of “justice and liberty for all” should also mean fair and equitable taxation to all as well. As we all know, death and taxes will always be with us. But we need not casually accept unnecessary deaths nor should we tolerate unfair, unjust, or unequal taxation. If the tax code is not fair, we need to make it so.
To avoid correcting and adjusting the tax code because it may mean that someone’s taxes may go up (while others’ may go down), in the name of a political battle cry that says “we will not raise taxes,” is just not right and runs contrary to a core purpose of our elected officials, which is to manage our country’s fiscal affairs wisely, honestly, and justly.
Instead, what is happening, regarding the management of our national economy, is that Wisdom is being thrown out for the sake of political maneuvering, Honesty is being cast down for the sake of political posturing, and Justice is being trampled upon for the sake of special interest benefits.
I’m neither an economist nor am I an entrepreneur, but from a “man on the street” layman’s perspective, it seems to me that big business and big money get all the breaks—Wall Street, National Banks, and International Corporations—while the little guy pays the price. It’s the history of humanity, the history of the haves over the have-nots in every empire throughout the ages.
However, this nation was founded on the premise that all are equal. We are supposedly a classless society; that is, we believe that all should have an equal and fair shake and be given an equal opportunity to “make it.” There is to be no privileged few who are to receive huge social benefits from our tax system without also paying its fair share for those benefits. In short, the rich are not to be given more social, economic, or political rights and privileges than the middle or lower classes, just because they’re rich. This should especially be true with regard to the nation’s tax code.
Among other things, our economy needs a fair and balanced tax code, healthy and wise regulation, checks and balances with transparent accountability, and politicians who are not in the pocket of special powerful interest groups who have the money and means to buy their votes. Nevertheless, I realize that we do not live in a perfect world. Politicians need money to get elected and re-elected. Money and political power go hand and hand.
Meanwhile the average person on the street is the one that needs real representation and consideration. Most of us are too busy trying to make a living (if we can) to follow every twist and turn of a representative’s vote. Worse, we are so often too gullible. We are too easily persuaded by catchy sound-bites and patriotic ditties that our politicians throw at us (in that sense we are partially to blame). That is, we vote with our emotions rather than our heads, and politicians know this. Yet we are supposed to be a government “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” “We the people…,” I think not. In reality I think “we the people” are being left behind to fend for ourselves while the “haves” got it and intend to keep it.
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