Walter Williams on social justice

Let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn.  Do you disagree?  Well then tell me how much belongs to you and why.

~ Walter Williams

Kevin Duffy on taxing the wealthy

There's a glaring defect with "tax the uber-rich:" capitalism is a positive sum game while taxation is a zero sum game.

~ Kevin Duffy, tweet, December 28, 2021

The New York Times on how to raise living standards

There isn’t a big mystery about how to reduce inequality and lift living standards for most Americans. Raising taxes on the wealthy, which are historically low, and devoting the money to everyone else would make a real difference.

~ The New York Times, May 2, 2021

Spike Cohen on taxing the rich

There is no such thing as a tax on the wealthy.  That burden always gets passed back to you, the middle class and most impoverished through rising costs of goods.

~ Spike Cohen, 2020 Libertarian Party VP candidate, tweet, April 28, 2021

Kevin Duffy compares the Reagan and Biden economic plans

When it comes to government intervention, there is not much new under the sun.  The state’s objective is always to extract as many eggs from the golden goose as possible.  While Reagan’s economic team acknowledged the importance of keeping the goose alive, Biden & Co. operate under no such constraints.  Count on the current administration to enact new taxes on capital gains, dividends and corporations...  The rich will be made a target, assuming they stick around for the abuse.  In an increasingly virtual economy with an expanding remote workplace, the wealthy have options.

~ Kevin Duffy, "The American Rescue Plan," The Coffee Can Portfolio, April 26, 2021

Veronique De Rugy on Joe Biden's promise to raise taxes only on those earning over $400,000

Either the administration still isn't fully clear on where it stands, or some taxpayers may be in for a big surprise—or both. 

Either way, the sad truth is that with this president's insane propensity for unconstrained government spending, he shouldn't make such a promise in the first place.  He has already added $1.9 trillion to the enormously inflated federal credit card and is planning on throwing another almost $4 trillion on it in what he deems infrastructure spending.  If he sticks to his campaign promises, Biden plans to splurge $11 trillion in additional spending over a decade.  Meanwhile, his proposed tax hikes are estimated to reap $2.1 to $2.8 trillion. In other words, for every $5 or $6 in new spending, $1 will be paid for in new taxes, and the rest goes on the nation's credit card. 

I know that's what politicians do, but that's still not right.  If he wants to raise spending to that level, everyone should pay some price for this growth in government, not simply those earning more than $400,000.

~ Veronique De Rugy, "Biden Said His Tax Hikes Would Only Affect the Rich. He Can't Keep That Promise.," Reason.com, April 1, 2021

Calvin Coolidge on redistribution schemes

Don't expect to help the weak by pulling down the strong.

~ Calvin Coolidge

Jared Walczak on California's proposed wealth tax

It is far easier to call for a state-level wealth tax than it is to actually design an enforceable one...  Any tax that is actually effective at taxing wealth... would be equally effective at driving wealth out of state.

~ Jared Walczak, vice president with the Tax Foundation, "California Set To Pass The Nation's First Wealth Tax Targeting The Ultra Rich," ZeroHedge, August 17, 2020

Grant's on New York City, telecommuting and out-migration of wealthy taxpayers

Covid-19 dealt New York an especially cruel blow, and what with the lockdown and riots and looting and curfews and the absence of baseball and the virtual cessation of commerce (a tentative reopening began Monday), the city had come to look like a ghost town.  Nobody doubts, or should doubt, its resiliency, but not even the great fire of 1776, or the draft riots of 1863, or the almost-bankruptcy of 1975 carried with them the threat of a crippling, perhaps permanent, out-migration of the kind of wealthy taxpayer who can telecommute - and who gave that alternative lifestyle a proof-of-concept test over the past three months by not taking the subway to work.  Some seem to prefer it.

[...]

Perhaps the emerging new freedom to work remotely will cut short the co-dependency of high-earning citizens and their big-spending state and local governments.

~ Grant's Interest Rate Observer, "Only a painted moon," June 12, 2020

Benjamin Harrison on taxing the rich

The indiscriminate denunciation of the rich is mischievous.... No poor man was ever made richer or happier by it. It is quite as illogical to despise a man because he is rich as because he is poor. Not what a man has, but what he is, settles his class. We can not right matters by taking from one what he has honestly acquired to bestow upon another what he has not earned.

~ Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president

Benjamin Harrison
1954-1968

Kevin Duffy on how to destroy an economy

How do you destroy an economy? Simple, attack the most productive members of society as "greedy parasites" and feed the real parasite (the state) in the process. News flash: the rich won't stick around for you to abuse them. This is what happened in Venezuela: the wealthy fled.

~ Kevin Duffy, Facebook post, December 15, 2019

Kevin Duffy on taxing the rich

Let's tax the rich! What a great idea!!! There is a downside, however...

First of all, the rich earned their money fairly by satisfying consumers better than the competition while keeping their costs down. Some, like Bill Gates, helped pioneer entire industries that transformed the economy (and fattened the government's coffers). All voluntary... win-win. If anyone gets rich by stealing, we have laws against theft. Enforce them.

To "tax the rich" you're basically saying, "we're going to knock on your door, put a gun to your head, and take your money." That's just great... what gives you the right? Envy? Insecurity? A lack of faith in freedom? A belief that the ends justify the means? Ignorance of the basic laws of economics? Besides the obvious violation of morality, there are plenty of practical reasons why we ought to leave the rich alone. 1) They have a high propensity to save and invest. Deferring consumption and deploying capital is what creates economic growth. 2) They've proven to be above-average stewards of capital. 3) The recipient of their largess - government - has proven to be below-average stewards of capital (putting it mildly). E.g., the waste in DC is off the charts and they’re $22T in hock. 4) They have a long-term horizon (vs. politicians who can't think past the next election.) 5) They have a high propensity towards charitable giving and they do it with purpose and efficiency (as opposed to the government). E.g., look at what the Gates Foundation has done to reduce disease and increase life expectancy in Africa.

There are three more reasons why we shouldn't tax the rich. 1) At some point they'll leave. (This is exactly what happened in Venezuela.) They have the means and in a digital economy, it's much easier to pick up and leave. 2) Taxing capital reduces competition and protects entrenched companies. 3) We will destroy our moral compass. Eating the productive will bring out the worst traits in humans.

~ Kevin Duffy, Facebook post, February 20, 2019

Kevin Duffy on the anti-capitalist mentality

At the root of our problems is a lack of morality and critical thinking. We accept that coercion (i.e. government force) is the solution to all problems. Who pays for it? The "wealthy." We justify this theft (and abdication of our own responsibility) by dehumanizing those who, by hard work, risk taking, vision, resiliency and serving consumers (i.e. the rest of us) got rich. Then we attack the very system - the free market - that allowed this miracle to take place.

It's all very sick and contrary to our own self interest, of course, but most fail to see it that way. Instead, they swallow whole the pro-state propaganda that's been fed to them since birth by politicians, history teachers, mass media, and movie producers.

~ Kevin Duffy