Quote from Mercor:
This issue is ,what is income? Someone making millions has lots of control how that income is distributed. Example. a rich guy has 100 million in Municipal bonds. He makes a guaranteed 5% return.
He gets 5 million a year tax free. Should he have to pay taxes?
Right now 40% of the bottom earners pay no tax. 5% of the top pay 72% of all taxes.
It is not the percent of income but the dollar amount of taxes that should be looked at.
if a system, gives you "opportunity", and allows you to "safely" and "securely" generate wealth, the system has a right to be compensated for providing the above. The question then becomes, what is "fair" compensation.
Getting paid to provide a valuable service is not a socialist concept. That is in fact a purely capitalistic concept.
The top 1% own more than 75% of the wealth.
When someone makes 40K a year, that's INCOME. They are not generating wealth.
When someone makes 40 Million a year by investing in municipal bonds, that's wealth generation.
also your comment:
"40% of the bottom earners pay no tax."
Is PATENTLY FALSE.
Unless you are referring to INCOME tax.
Even then, your statement is patently false. The lower 40% pay MORE of their income as tax than the top 1%. In fact for top 1% earners, given all the tax loop-holes, their effective tax rate approaches zero.