2017 Aug 22^nd

Our conservative friends in government tell us that we Americans are terribly over-taxed, that our taxes must be reduced forthwith lest our economy collapse. Really? Yes, they tell us, 44 percent of our income goes for taxes. Maybe you could get that if you counted gasoline taxes and dog licenses but if that’s true it is amazing that we live so well on the leftover. Keep in mind that there is an important distinction between taxes levied and taxes paid. Our corporate tax rate is well over 30 percent yet to corporate tax rate actually paid is about 19 percent.

If our taxes are too high then we should find a substantial reduction in the accumulation of private capital. That is not happening: We now have a population of about 320 million people and scattered among them are well over 520 billionaires. Please remember that a billion dollars is one thousand million dollars. Our new Secretary of Education is worth about five billion dollars and own a yacht of humungous dimensions that is 50 meters long and sleeps 12 in separate staterooms; it is worth about 40 million dollars. (Well, why not?)

DeVos’ brother, Eric Prince, lives out of the country for reasons he is hesitant to discuss, shares in this incredible wealth. Mr. Prince is in the private Army business just as his sister Betsy is pushing for government funding of private religious schools, Mr. Prince has offered to have  his employees completely takeover the Afghan war for just 15 billion a year instead of the current cost to the taxpayer of 45 billion a year. (I’m willing to bet he doesn’t get hired.)

As it happens we are churning out millionaires at a great rate. Of all the countries in the world we rank seventh in the per capita number of millionaires. The countries that are ahead of us are the tiny mid-east oil kingdoms and Singapore, We are adding about 17,000 millionaires a day to our population. Maybe we aren’t over-taxed at all; maybe we need a different kind of tax. There’ll be more about this tomorrow.