An unfortunate fact about taxing the hell out of the rich

[ThomWV]

Taxing the Rich won't do a thing to slow down, let alone stop, predatory activities by Corporations of every sort as they go about their day to day business unfettered by recently jettisoned regulation. Just because the President of the local Gas and Oil company gets the living bejezuz taxed out of him doesn't mean his corporation won't strip mine your back yard and destroy your watershed now that they're legally able to do so.

Just taxing the rich doesn't do a thing to stop the desecration of America, at best its just a way to pay for fixing just some small bit of the damage that has already been done. Every interface between the public and privately held interests in this country there need to be examined and where there is harm to be felt by their interaction of the two it must never be allowed for that harm fall to the people. God dam it, that's the very least we can expect, that they 'first, do no harm".

[safeinOhio]

1. It only takes a pebble

to start a landslide.

[jody]

3. Not if the pebble is at the bottom of the hill. n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

34. "The avalanche has already started

It is too late for the pebbles to vote." ;-)

[libinnyandia]

2. It's a start. .

[elleng]

4. Quite right, but it does help 99% of us to feel there might be some equity in the system.

Regulation is DEFINITELY necessary.

[lonestarnot]

7. Here! Here! What she said!

[Edweird]

5. True, but with all that tax revenue we can set up a regulatory agency with some teeth and

a bad attitude.

[warrior1]

6. 3 percent more

isn't taxing the hell out of the rich.

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. The rich think so. I don't know how they live with themselves knowing others suffer

because of their greed. :shrug:

[Zorra]

8. It is just one step in the process of what needs to be done to

help end the dictatorship of the 1%.

[TBF]

9. I agree - it is only a bandaid and a small one at that.

We really need to get rid of capitalism.

[tularetom]

10. An unfortunate fact about taxing anybody beside the rich

Nobody else has any fuckin money!

While wealth is becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of a few, our tax policies are increasingly spreading the burden among those who hold less and less of the country's wealth.

It's a formula for disaster.

[Ohio Joe]

11. Agreed. They are two separate problems

Both of which need to be fixed.

[Vincardog]

12. I believe we should give it a try and see if TWV is correct, Shat say you?

[Rex]

13. Unfortunately, you are absolutely correct.

And here is another thing...they will STILL be filthy fucking rich!

[Warpy]

14. What makes you think that's all that's on the table?

It starts with taxing away their ability to buy our government. Unless we do that, nothing else in the interest of the people of this country has a chance of getting done, including reining in predatory corporations.

Reinstituting the progressive income tax has got to be first. Derailing corrupt politicians' gravy train has got to be first.

[TheKentuckian]

15. It doesn't fix everything by any measure but that does not mean no positive impact.

I mean you miss even the straight forward of more revenue much less the more indirect issues like actually encouraging investment to retain income value versus paying the taxes and the resulting spreading commerce more broadly in the economy.

It does help.

[coalition_unwilling]

16. I don't think anyone ever claimed that increasing marginal tax rates

on the rich would stop predatory activities by corporations. If anyone did, he or she is naive in the extreme, as corporate CEOs and Boards of Directors have fiduciary duties to their shareholders. To stop predatory corporate behavior requires strong governmental regulation, an entirely different matter from the tax code.

[ChiciB1]

17. Point Taken... If Anyone Has Ever Read Howard Zinn's People's History

of The United States, the elite will always find a way to win. However, that does NOT mean that "we the people" should just LET them have it ALL without a fight for some equality!

[hack89]

18. If you hitch your financial wagon to a small group of rich people

what should be done to ensure there are enough rich people to tax? That's the irony of tax the rich - you become even more dependent on people that you despise and mistrust.

[JoeyT]

31. No you don't.

No one is suggesting the rich pay taxes and everyone else stop. They're paying taxes at far below the rate of the rest of the country. (As a percentage of income. Certainly as a percentage of wealth.) When they're not quite so rich, the money will be spread around to other people that will also be taxed.

Atlas isn't going to shrug. The world doesn't work that way.

[annabanana]

19. Hey.. It's a start. . Consider it start-up money to beef up the regulators. . . n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

20. The fact about one thing is that it is not the other thing.

No matter what the thing. The thing about taking medicine for your flu is that it does nothing for your broken toe.

[ZombieHorde]

21. This is why OWS has more than one message. nt

[ZombieHorde]

22. DU is being weird today...

The program, not the people. The people are weird every day.

[Gman]

23. True but...

it will go a long way to pumping more money into the economy creating more jobs and putting food on more tables. I don't think the intent of taxing the rich is to stop the practices you mention. The goal is more money to go into the economy instead of self-serving investments overseas (among other self-serving things) for the rich.

[Gman]

24. True but...

it will go a long way to pumping more money into the economy creating more jobs and putting food on more tables. I don't think the intent of taxing the rich is to stop the practices you mention. The goal is more money to go into the economy instead of self-serving investments overseas (among other self-serving things) for the rich.

[Gman]

25. True but...

it will go a long way to pumping more money into the economy creating more jobs and putting food on more tables. I don't think the intent of taxing the rich is to stop the practices you mention. The goal is more money to go into the economy instead of self-serving investments overseas (among other self-serving things) for the rich.

[Gman]

26. True but...

it will go a long way to pumping more money into the economy creating more jobs and putting food on more tables. I don't think the intent of taxing the rich is to stop the practices you mention. The goal is more money to go into the economy instead of self-serving investments overseas (among other self-serving things) for the rich.

[LadyHawkAZ]

27. Mr. Gasandoil's high tax rate can then pay for...

the inspectors to make sure that he isn't strip mining your backyard and enforcement if he damages your watershed. Necessary things like that, that have been slowly vanishing from existence for lack of funding because we won't tax the "job creators".

[sam11111]

28. Ends their campaign donations to GOP: then Dem wins will clean up the deregulation etc abuses

Worked that way most of the Golden Age 1945-1964.

Same in Sweden 1960-1991

[ladjf]

29. You have brought up three issues , 1) taxing the rich and 2) predatory

activities of Corporations and 3) the desecration of America.

We should 1) tax the hell out of the rich,2) put realistic legal safeguards against predatory
Corporate actives and 3) figure out exactly what you are referring to as the "desecration of America.

[ladjf]

30. You have brought up three different issues: 1) taxing the rich , 2) predatory activities

by Corporations and 3) the desecration of America.

We should 1) tax the hell out of the rich,2) put realistic legal safeguards against predatory
Corporate actives and 3) figure out exactly what you are referring to as the "desecration of America.

[anAustralianobserver]

33. I like your construction here:

"Every interface between the public and privately held interests in this country {needs} to be examined and where there is harm to be felt by their interaction... it must never be allowed {to} fall to the people."