Redistribution of Wealth

Every penny, every cent, every sou, every shilling, every yen that was ever taken by taxation at any time in history and anywhere in the world is a “redistribution of wealth.”  Never is a single penny taken in tax not a redistribution of wealth.  Whether it is taken in the form of a sales tax, an income tax, a property tax, a FICA (Social Security) tax, an excise tax or a luxury tax, every cent that gets taken by government will be “redistributed.”  To government workers who handle the collection and distribution of tax monies, to other government workers, to construction teams, to doctors and hospitals, to teachers, to police and fire-fighters, to sanitation workers, to mass transit workers, to retired and “elderly” citizens as a subsistence income and, yes, to thieves.  It is sheer demagoguery for any politician to call a tax hike on the wealthy a re-distribution of wealth when you consider that the most massive re-distribution of wealth in American history was the legal theft of wealth (by way of indecently huge tax cuts for the wealthy) from the pockets of the poor and the middle class into the bank and investment accounts of the super-wealthy over the past thirty-five years in America, ever since the top marginal income tax rate was cut from 70 - 91% (you read that right!) down to 28 - 39%.  These monies, that were never collected, if they could be recaptured by the U.S. Treasury, would erase the National Debt.  These tax cuts caused the National Debt.  Many Republicans use this phrase when they want to steal your money and redistribute it to their wealthy friends, the sources of their campaign war-chests.

So, why have the Democrats not called this theft (which they helped bring about) a re-distribution of wealth?  Because they profited from it themselves, and because they are impotent and cowardly, and because they dare not say anything inflammatory about their wealthy benefactors lest they lose a sizable chunk of their own campaign war-chests. 

The only questions you should ever have to ask about taxation are: “who will benefit from my tax contributions?” and “are others more fortunate than myself paying their fair share?”  Taxes are always a redistribution of wealth.  The only crime is when they are redistributed up (as they were in the story of Robin Hood, where the poor had to pay taxes to benefit the king and the nobility). 

Beware of politicians who want “justice” for their wealthy friends, as long as you pay for it.