WEBCommentary(tm) - Myths About Taxes And The Rich Die Slowly

Facts are stubborn things. So too apparently are the minds of certain individuals. These individuals usually, but not always, tend to lean to the left. This is so because in order to be an individual who believes in the power and glory of Big Government as one’s savior, it requires a mind so obstinate that facts simply cannot penetrate it. When facts attempt to enter a liberal’s mind it is the proverbial unmovable object (the liberal mind) meeting the equally proverbial unstoppable force (the facts).

I really do detest repeating myself. But stubborn sorts require that such things be done from time to time. Especially when those stubborn sorts are egged on by someone like President Obama. The President is possibly the biggest, most stubborn mule of all on the left at this given moment. He has to be. It is the only way he can keep promoting the failed ideology of liberalism. If he were not so stubborn, the President would admit he is wrong and adopt the truth as his guide and we would be happy and prosperous as a nation. Yeah, and if you think for a minute that the President will ever let the truth reign and ditch the failed policies of liberalism, then I have a bridge to sell you.

When the President is not out and about telling everyone who will still listen to him that taxing the rich and taking their money to pay for benefits for others is not redistribution of the wealth, he is still harping on the myth that the rich pay less of an income tax rate than the middle class and the poor. He is still out there pretending that the rich are scamming the system so as to not pay their “fair share” which President Obama needs to fund all his glorious dreams for a dependent America.

The whole scam the President is perpetrating is so heinous that it is nothing short of slander. While it is true that many rich people pay 15% on Long Term Capital Gains on the profits from their investments, the dirty little secret is that it is the same rate everyone pays on such things [2]. You, me, Mitt Romney, Warren Buffett, even President Obama himself all pay the rate. Now, if you do not have investments and have to live off of income earned at a job while people like Mitt Romney do not, it still does not mean that they are paying a lower rate than you on the same type of income. My suggestion is that if you want to pay Romney’s tax rate then invest your money and live off of it. What? You cannot do that? Hey not my problem. And it is not Mitt Romney’s problem either.

See, I am not so fortunate as to be able to put my money into investments and live off the proceeds. But do you hear me bitching about the rich paying 15% because they able to? Nope. See, I do not bitch about it because I strive to be at that level someday. I have goals beyond living hand to mouth and off biweekly paychecks or government handouts. And I work towards those goals. I have invested in myself, gotten a good education, work hard at my job so that my employer finds my contributions valuable and worthy of yearly pay increases, and I sock as much money away as I can every year. You did not do that? Well, that is your problem. Or, at least in a free society where liberty is the basis of said society it would be. A century of slowly convincing Americans that government is their savior however has changed the feelings of many and brought them to the false conclusion that they are owed something and that someone else should pay for it.

Now, with regards to income taxes there is a parallel complaint from liberals like Barack Obama. He wails that when it comes to income taxes the rich are having it easy. Every now and then liberals like him whine that the rich pay lower rates on income than other people. The goal is to try and get the rabble up in arms against those filthy, stinking, cheating rich folks who use their millions to hire accountants to scam the system. This is also blatantly untrue however. In fact, and I wrote about this last year, the Tax Foundation took the very numbers of the Internal Revenue Service itself and published the truth of the matter.

As one can see from the government’s own numbers [2] the percentage of income that one pays in taxes clearly declines as they earn less. On average, the top one to five percent pay 16.4%, the top five to ten percent pay 11.4%, the top ten to twenty-five percent pay 8.23%, the top twenty-five to fifty percent pay 5.58% and the bottom fifty percent pay just a measly 1.85%. In fact, the top one percent alone pay taxes at a rate of 24.01% on their income. Tell me, if you are one of these sheep that hang on President Obama’s words, when was the last time you filed your taxes and paid that sort of a rate at the end of the day?

Are there some tax cheats out there? Sure there are. But they also fall across all income ranges. Even the very poor cheat on their taxes. The numbers are not lying here. The average rich person pays a Hell of a lot more in taxes than you do on their income. And dollar wise they pay a Hell of lot more still. Yet the myth that the rich are not paying as much as Joe Six-Pack will no doubt continue. Heck, as long as there are liberals who seek power, their will be lies told that further their pursuit of said power.

J.J. Jackson is a libertarian conservative author from Pittsburgh, PA who has been writing and promoting individual liberty since 1993 and is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. He is the Pittsburgh Conservative Examiner for Examiner.com. He is also the owner of The Right Things - Conservative T-shirts & Gifts http://www.cafepress.com/rightthings. His weekly commentary along with exclusives not available anywhere else can be found at http://www.libertyreborn.com