Dear Editor:
How much income redistribution is fair? Dr. Gerald Prante, an economics professor, made some interesting claims in a November 2013 paper.
For every dollar America's lowest income families pay in taxes they receive $5.28 worth of government services/benefits. Middle income families receive $1.48 worth of services/benefits for each dollar they pay in taxes. America's richest families receive $0.25 worth of services/benefits for each of their tax dollars.
In just the year 2012 government policies redistributed more than $2 trillion from the top 40 percent to the bottom 60 percent. Almost half of that nearly $2 trillion came from the pockets of those in the top 1percent.
The previous figures reflect an attempt to distribute that value of all government spending to individuals. We all benefit equally from the money spent national defense but we don't benefit equally from mass transit subsidies.
If your family income is $60,000/yr do you think you should have to pay three times as much for a loaf of bread as the family who makes only $20,000/yr, to make things fair? If so then by all means donate $40 to a food bank for every $20 you spend on groceries. It's your money and it should be your choice how you spend it.
In 2012 US governments, at all levels, collected $4.2 trillion and spent $5.5 trillion, thus piling another $1.3 trillion in debt on the shoulders of all future generations. The $5.5 trillion works out to over $45,000 of spending per household. Did your family get its $45,000 worth of good out of governments?
Bernie Sanders comments that we need to be more like Denmark caused me to do enough research to consider their system, Everyone pays 8 percent on every dollar they earn, then another 37 percent on every dollar over $5,700 and finally another 50 percent on everything over $67,000 (income taxes are capped at 51.5 percent, no one pays more than that). Perhaps that isn't all that bad. Actually I would not consider it because we are almost overwhelmed with proof of the incompetence and corruption of those in our federal government. Everyone should have some "skin in the game."
We keep hearing that government needs to borrow and spend more to "stimulate" the economy? Why not let us "stimulate" the economy by cutting taxes across the board and letting us spend our money?
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