the reason the rich should pay more in taxes is that they were only able to earn their income by hiring people that went to (taxpayer funded) public schools, employ people who drove on (taxpayer funded) public roads and otherwise could not do what they do were it not for the awesome goodness of the government – they used more public services and therefore they should pay more for them too
When octomom drove on the freeway to the delivery room, didn’t she use up enough public good credits for a whole city of rich people? When Fernando the LA cop arrests Hector and his stable of hoes, and piles up the legal expenses, court costs, public defender fees, plus the friction to reposses Hector’s BMW, plus the cost of the Narcs to police Hector’s $500/day cocaine habit, another problem which causes a thousand-mile fence being built from Brownsville to San Diego, well, there you have it — Freakonomics.
We know from simple facts that the rich pay disproportionately more taxes. (Who else? Can’t tax the poor: they don’t have any money.) But we also know that the rich control the government. (Darn those fat cats.) So, how do you explain those two facts?
One easy answer is that the wealthy accept the doctrine of noblesse oblige and are one heck of a nice bunch of folks for carrying our burdens for us. Let’s hope that Atlas does not shrug.
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