Make my essay better

Robert Clayton
Shelley Phlegar, MA
ENG-123
04/10/2021

Taxing the Wealthy

I want to examine the taxes we levy against the wealthy and explore riaisng taxes on them. We should not tax the wealthy more than we already do. These 3 main claims all support my issue by being some of the main negative contributors to an unhealthy nation. We watch as world governments frivolously spend money and do not stick to any budgets. Giving them more money will not fix this issue. There is evidence to suggest taxing the wealthy and successful companies’ higher amounts make them leave the country to countries with less taxes leading to a motionless economy. I currently see resentment from poor and the middle-class nation and worldwide towards the rich. My main claims will examine how governments already waste most money and do not follow a budget, identify how raising taxes slows the economic growth for a country, and explore the possible class war situations such as the poor and middle class resenting the rich, and the rich who currently pay most of the tax bill, resenting the poor and middle class in return.
The opposition’s argument that we should tax the wealthy more is based more off of emotion rather than facts. The counterargument is that raising taxes gives higher funds to go towards social programs to help the lower classes. This is admirable logic and the emotion behind it is sound and completely understandable. Kimberly Clausing, an American economist, says “Tax increases for those at the top can achieve two aims: providing revenue resources from those that have experienced the greatest gains in income, and countering economic and social inequalities.” I believe my arguments will counter these claims by using facts and history.
We saw the economy sore with a tax reform in 2017 and it included less taxes for corporations and the wealthy. The stock market was soring and a lot of the poor and middle class ira’s and 401k’s skyrocketed showing that less taxes for the wealthy can lead to positive financial increases for those lower classes. We also saw many major companies such as Apple and Ford cancel plans for jobs outside the United States and keep them in the country which opened a lot of high paying jobs and a lot of those jobs were in areas that typically had lower cost of living wages. Higher paying jobs lead to more tax revenue as poorer and middle classes go up in pay and go into higher tax brackets. This is raisies lower classes into higher incomes which leads to more spending. More spending is critical for an economy to grow.
I would like to address the history of tax increases using Thomas Sowell’s books that shows there is no correlation between tax rates and tax revenues. When the tax rate was highest in 1921 at 73 percent it brought in less revenue than after the tax rate was cut to 24 percent. Thomas Sowell, an American ecominsit, says “ That is because 24 percent of something is larger than 73% of nothing.” Wealthy people find better loopholes to not pay taxes when the rates are higher leading to less revenue. History has shown in the first example that people are willing to pay their taxes fairly when the rates are not unfair. These same loopholes do not apply to the poor and middle classes and this leads to the resentment towards the rich. “The top 1% of earners pay 25% of all taxes. The top 20% of earners pay 72% of all taxes.” (David Wessel, 2019)
Lastly, I would like to talk about if the government received more revenue, which currently this is no evidence to support they would, how would they spend it, and would it be efficiently? Milton Friedman frequently examines the government’s general lack of fiscal discipline. When the government receives more revenue there is no budget or less spending. There is more spending. However, we can see when a company does well there is increases in pay for the workers and even bonus’ is when the company pays less taxes. This is a better way of increasing revenue as poor and middle class make more money and pay more taxes without loopholes to exploit. This would also lift families out of poverty and lessen the burden of the current welfare state.
In conclusion I think from the evidence I explored, taxing companies and wealthy people more is not in the best interest of the people. We typically will see lower revenue, a higher distrust from lower classes to higher classes of people and more wild spending from the government who can not control spending whether getting more money or not. These issues will, can, and have lead to government distrust, an unhealthy attitude towards wealthy people, and companies putting money and jobs in countries without these issues. Allowing lower taxes will make our country more competitive in the world market and those profits will be seen as bonus’s and higher wages.

“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

― Winston S. Churchill

ENG 123 References

Friedman on the Surplus by Milton Friedman Monday, April 30, 2001::
https://www.hoover.org/research/friedman-surplus

The Four Different Ways To Spend Money By Milton Friedman Published: 11/03/2020 | Updated: 01/24/2021 by Financial Samurai:
https://www.financialsamurai.com/the-four-different-ways-to-spend-money-by-milton-friedman/

‘Taxing the rich’ seldom results in greater tax revenues By THOMAS SOWELL |PUBLISHED: May 19, 2011 at 12:35 p.m. | UPDATED: August 15, 2016 at 2:57 p.m. https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2011/05/19/thomas-sowell-taxing-the-rich-seldom-results-in-greater-tax-revenues/

Taxing the Rich (UPDATED) By Kimberly Clausing ·October 27, 2020 https://econofact.org/taxing-the-rich

Who are the rich and how might we tax them more?-David Wessel OCTOBER 15, 2019 https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/who-are-the-rich-and-how-might-we-tax-them-more/