People that make more money also consume more natural resources (which arguably, we all own), and place more strain on some public services (roads, policing, etc.). It’s reasonable that they should pay a little more just to offset their greater impact on shared resources, even if they have no interest in helping anyone else.

The internal combustion steam engine is obsolete? Say it ain’t so, Joe!

It is interesting and sad that so many seem to condemn people and ideas with so little understanding of either, i.e. socialism is always bad, unfettered free market capitalism is always good. In fact, in countries such as Sweden, Findland, Denmark and Holland, all countries with democratic (the kind where elections are regular and fair) socialist systems have infant mortality rates, life expectancy rates along with virtually every measurement of individual happiness and contentment levels that exceed the same measurements in the U.S. Perhaps some of the reason is that these countries all have health care and quality educational systems available to everyone, a package of services that in this country is available only the wealthy, lucky or the rare exception.

Unfettered free market capitalism as increasingly practiced in this country during my lifetime on the other hand has taken us from a post WWll situation in which the average CEO made about seven times the salary of the average worker to where we are today in which the CEO’s make literally 1,000′s of times more than the average worker. We are now to the point where the top 1% in this country receives about 25% of the income and controls 40-50% of the total wealth. To see where such a disparity of wealth leads, we have only to look at the bananna republics (the countries, not the chain stores) in South America and some of the struggling countries in Africa. Hmm, democratic socialism looks pretty good to me.

If we are to be a great country or even simply a reasonably democratic one, we have to be able and willing to adjust to the new realities established by the current world’s population, resource requirements etc. and to recognize that ideas that may have been good in previous generations are no longer adequate for either our country or our world. Ideas such as employers should be the primary provider of health care and education should be totally under local control along with other sacred cows, have like the internal combustion engine passed their prime. In previous times, these were good ideas that on the whole took us to a historically high level of freedom and prosperity, but they have now passed the point of diminishing returns, are now on the down side of the bell curve and it is time we recognized these realities and adjusted accordingly.  

BaxterJ and Neel:

Thanks for that. I have been scratching my head over these very things. But I think the average Joe (ahem) actually has no idea how taxes work which is why it’s so easy for politicians to pass so many laws favoring the rich without anyone really noticing. Bush bought the entire middle class off with $300 each while his “base” were getting 100′s of thousands in tax breaks.

Just a point of note:
Raising the tax rate 3 percentage points is not a three percent increase in taxes. That change amounts to an 8.33 percent increase in tax obligation.
But also it’s not really an increase in taxes. Legislation for the ‘temporary’ Bush tax cut included a requirement to review and vote again in 2010 (I think that’s the right date). So the rich and glamorous say it’s a tax increase to end their temporary relief bill, but in fact that’s all it does (end the temporary relief given to those who think the poor are living off the public gravy.)

Progressive taxes are nothing new. I don’t know why since Joe the Plumber stepped forward, some people are acting like they never heard of such a thing.

My family has been through some hard times, and when things are better, I’ll happily share with those who have less, through taxes and through charities.

Not that I think that the USA is headed for socialism (you’ll never let THAT happen!), but why is it such a bad word? Are we humans so greedy that we can’t give a portion of what we earn to keep our country running and help the people who need it?

Then again, I’m a Canadian- what do I know?

Tahini,
In fact, tax policy is a HUGE, SUBSTANTIVE issue, especially in the current economy. And since when is correcting someone’s very public, very politically-motivated lies “bashing?”

If he didn’t want public scrutiny, he need not have stepped up to take the spotlight.

Do you have no time to do anything but bash people who raise serious concerns that challenge the honesty of a candidate’s tactics?

I think what I’m doing here is airing real issues in an election where fake personality and character attacks dominate. It’s called repsonsible citizenship in a democracy.

Oh wow, what a farce! So, the life lesson here, boys and girls, is never give into the temptation of wanting to get on TV and show this uppity presidential candidate a thing or two. It may lead to utter humiliation and an audit. Ouch.