Commentary: How do the super-rich avoid paying their fair share of taxes? By convincing Federal, State and local politicians with money and lobbyists about what is good for the economy. These include gimmicks like tax reductions to stimulate business investment, private equity takeovers and special treatment for capital gains and carried interest. You will notice that none of these ideas benefit the average wage earner—and it doesn’t trickle down. The super-rich earn virtually all their wealth from the constantly rising value of their assets--particularly in the stock market. Using the gimmicks just mentioned-- their tax rate is incredibly low or zero.Yet, all these wealthy people and the businesses they invest in require educated and healthy people to operate their trucks and warehouses, roads and bridges to move their merchandize, police to keep the peace and public research to improve efficiency—but they don’t want to pay for these public goods. Their attitude is let the poor slobs at the bottom of the food chain pay the taxes.
This plutocracy arrangement must change. In the last 40 years, income and wealth inequality in the U.S. has gone through the roof—especially as compared to other rich countries. As discussed above--unfair tax arrangements is one reason—but another is lack of access to a quality education for everyone.
In the U.S. , education quality is based on your zip code. Poor districts are put at a major disadvantage as compared to rich ones. It is time we consider a wealth tax to promote fairness in our tax system and provide access to a quality education and retraining needs for all.