Posted on 05/05/2010 12:20:28 PM PDT by Polybius
Even as the economy recovers, the HENRYs - high earners, not rich yet - are struggling.
On Tax Day, April 15th, I picked up the Wall Street Journal and was amazed to see an editorial titled "A Message from HENRY" by a California financial advisor. The author, Mike Donahue, condemned the big and growing tax burden shouldered by high-earners like himself, a group he identified as "the HENRYs," ......
These aren't investment bankers, hedge fund managers, CEOs, trust fund babies or other members of the super-rich. No, the HENRYs are generally folks in their 30s and 40s who got the best grades in high school, worked their way through college, and logged long hours as law firm associates or consultants on the rise. In most HENRY households, the husband and wife both work to tally those big incomes. ......
Put simply, the five million HENRYs form the core of the nation's entrepreneurial and professional class. .....
"We may be only a small percentage of the population, but we pay a large portion of the taxes and employ many,"
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
But it didn't previously. They made lifestyle commitments that they thought they could afford, and it isn't frictionless to wind them down.
But, that's not the real problem here--it's that taxes and regulation are getting high enough to make it seem a better trade to work less and live on a lower budget. That means less output from productive people, and less trickle-down.
There is already taxes on wealth. Property taxes. Are you advocating expanding property taxes to include anything you own? Where does that end? .... Myrddin
The Federal Government takes in zero property taxes and the principal on John Kerry's and Teresa Heinz's $750 million fortune (inherited tax-free after Teresa's first husband died) has not been taxed one single dollar in Federal taxes.
The year that he ran for President, John Kerry paid less Federal income taxes on his Senate salary than I paid on my earnings even though he was sitting on top of a $750 million, tax-free fortune.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Government has taxed my earnings (Earning = Wealth Wannabes) over $100,000 per year for quite a while now until this past year.
Meanwhile, close to 50% of all Americans pay no Federal income taxes at all because the 5 million HENRY's in America are sucking up 90% of the American Federal tax burden.
Don't you think that there can be a middle ground there somewhere?
How about a 1% Federal tax per year on wealth (excluding real estate already taxed at the local level) of over $25 million?
I am sick of hearing politicians advocating "Taxing the Rich" when they actually mean "Taxing the High Earners" while the truly "Rich" donate millions of dollars to Democrat politicians to keep the taxes on my earnings high and the taxes on their wealth non-existant.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further t.he brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence. Abe Lincoln
0 is doing the opposite.
No. Don't even suggest that. Income tax started as 1% and only touched a small number of people. Look at how that has changed. It's a mistake to let the camel get its nose under the tent. The percentage will be raised and the ceiling will be dropped as the politicians spend every penny in that new gold mine.
Rearden?
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