Adam Smith Endorses Obama Tax Plan

“It is not unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”

– Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776

Related:

“Let the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Expire Already,” Senator Bernie Sanders, Truthdig

“How to raise taxes on the rich,” Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Money

“Tax hike for wealthy won’t kill growth, CBO says,” Reuters via NBC News

“The Great Capitalist Heist: How Paris Hilton’s Dogs Ended Up Better Off Than You,” Gerald Friedman, Naked Capitalism [caution: numbers n’ stuff]

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Economist Ben Stein: Taxes on the Rich Are Too Low

Conservative economist Ben Stein told panelists on “Fox & Friends” that the government doesn’t just have a spending problem, it also has a “too low taxes problem.”

“I hate to say this on Fox – I hope I’ll be allowed to leave here alive – but I don’t think there is any way we can cut spending enough to make a meaningful difference, we’re going to have to raise taxes on very, very rich people. People with incomes of, say, $2, $3, $4 million a year and up. And then slowly, slowly, slowly move it down. $250,000 a year, that’s not a rich person.”

“With all due respect to Fox, who I love like brothers and sisters, taxes are too low,” he added.

Adam Smith Endorses Obama Tax Plan

“Let me me ask you, what’s the better way to make our economy stronger? Do we give … tax breaks to every millionaire and billionaire in the country? Or should we make investments in education and research and health care and our veterans?”

— Barack Obama, April 12, 2012
“Obama: Tax the rich to help grow the economy,” David Jackson, USA Today

Occupy Cottage Cheese

Hundreds of thousands of middle class Israelis began protesting a huge jump in dairy prices this summer, resulting in the largest demonstrations the country has ever seen. These soon became protests about widening economic inequalities in the small nation.

The protests are getting results. The Israeli cabinet has just approved a new tax plan reducing taxes on low-income wage earners and raising them for the rich and for corporations. Other new policies include cuts to the defense budget.

Herman Cain’s Tax Plan IS a Game, After All

Critics, especially those who can do math, think Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” tax plan is just a catchy slogan. Jon Huntsman thinks it’s the price of pizza. Nonsense. The 9-9-9 plan is just a game. A computer game. Sim City 4, to be precise.

As reporter Amanda Terkel first realized, when players participating in the city simulation begin planning taxes for their mock municipality, the game setup starts commercial, industrial, and residential taxes at 9% rates, remarkably similar to Mr. Cain’s. Gamers use the 9% defaults to figure out rates that will actually work because, even in cyberspace, “9-9-9” doesn’t cut it.

Herman Cain’s Tax on the Poor

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has been getting lots of attention for his bumper-sticker-sized economic policy, the All Meat Combo Original Jumbo  “9-9-9” tax plan. Easy to remember; easy to misunderstand the burden it would place on working people and the poor if the government was wacky enough to implement it.

Here’s where those “9s” in the slogan come from. Throw out the unwieldy U.S. tax code, then replace it with a 9% tax on corporate profits, 9% on personal income, and a 9% tax on consumption.

What’s a “consumption tax?” A 9% federal sales tax or VAT on top of your local sales tax. If you live hand-to-mouth, you would pay 9% on 100% of your income as you earn it, then another 9% on what’s left of those dollars as you spend them to cover your family’s expenses. Result: Americans who earn the least would pay the most in taxes.