Jeremiah is fond of saying that “free” government services, like health care, aren’t really free because we pay for them with our taxes. This turns out to be incorrect. Most of us will enjoy free health care because the rich are going to pay for it.
According to the IRS, more than half the total income tax is paid by Americans earning more than $200,000. Four million rich households pay the freight for the rest of us. Most Americans, earning between $20K and $100K, contribute less than 10% of their income.
Funding social programs by soaking the rich seems like a good idea until you realize that this same money, left in the hands of Americans – especially rich Americans – is what drives investment, spending, and jobs.
Socialist tax policy crops up in England every so often, and then ends in disaster. As Melanie Phillips of the Daily Mail puts it:
By singling out the wealthy as scapegoats for the failure of government policy, it implicitly classifies as the enemies of society people whose efforts are essential to its prosperity.
Ms. Phillips goes on to say that confiscatory taxes act as a brake on wealth-creating activities throughout the economy, leading to stagnation and, ultimately, less tax revenue.
House Speaker Pelosi proposes to pay for her “public option” with a 50% surtax on the rich. This is the same figure, and the same attitude, which has now made England’s Labour party unelectable.
See also: Culture War over Capitalism
