My Patriotic Millionaires Pitch
Erica Payne sent out a request for writeups from Patriotic Millionaires members, and I provided this. I hate not to re-use perfectly good copy…
I live (quite well) off financial investments — no need to work any more — and my taxes every year are ridiculously, embarrassingly low. Meanwhile tens, hundreds of millions of hard workers who spend all their money — enriching entrepreneurs like me, and spurring economic growth — are throttled by tax bites that far exceed mine.
This tax structure and its terrible incentives are destroying, for my children and grandchildren, the opportunities for personal fulfillment and enrichment that America provided me. I wholeheartedly support the specific initiatives of Patriotic Millionaires, but I think far more is needed to create a national tax structure that actually is progressive above $60 or $80K a year in income. Us rich folks aren’t paying nearly our share of the bill — paying for what we receive — or re-investing in the country that gave us such remarkable opportunities. Don’t we care about our kids?
Americans have told us what they want — rich and poor, tea partiers and raging liberals (the polls aren’t hard to read) — and we need to pay for it. True conservatives pay their bills.
Cross-posted at Asymptosis.
Hmm, I’d rather they spend the money lobbying against social security cuts. Because what we have are increased taxes and spending cuts – including SS. The austerity snowball continues to build.
Ah, $60,000 is rich? or close?
I think this could be bogus. A little too cute by half.
I’ll vote with rusty on the probability of this being a bogus Patriotic Millionaire. I’d guess that the group paying the biggest percentage of income in taxes are those in the $100,000 to $250,000 level. Where the real money remains untaxed to any reasonable degree is in the over $500,000 level, and the percentage of tax to income probably recedes as the income level increases from there.
@save the rustbelt and Jack:
No you don’t understand. I wrote this. This is me.
I call myself a millionaire because:
1. I have had seven figures in annual income in my life.
2. I have written a seven-figure check to the IRS. (Wrote it by hand, signed it, sent it off…)
3. I have a seven-figure net worth.
That make things clearer?
Remember when #3 was the definition of “millionaire”?
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When rich people complain to me about how high their tax bill was this year, my response is “congratulations!”
Steve, I tell them to do what they tell the rest of us to do when we don’t have enough money – work harder and get ahead or get a second job.