Warren Buffett: Tax me and the rest of the wealthy more

But also, if they won the lottery, even if there was no taxes on it, they would loose it all within a year or two, so it wouldn't matter any way.

 

You know if the wealthy wish to pay more in taxes they can simply write a check and mail it to the US Treasury. It's odd that Warren Buffett keeps telling about raising taxes on the wealthy but he took measures to shield his fortune from the "death" tax.

What the wealthy truly want is ALL wealthy to pay more not just themselves.

 

I think that as a businessman, he truly sees the benefit of more taxes on the rich and himself, unlike many in America who will never achieve massive wealth, the wealthy actually gain by higher taxes, because they know that they will invest in jobs, and their companies, because of it, due to deductions. That causes more people spending more money, and that increases their bottom line. They don't necessarily do it now, because there is no incentive, the paper pushers don't care, they benefit the most. The true big business people are the only ones that can see the advantage, but they can't get past the No Tax people, and the corporate CEO's that enjoy the No Tax ignorance.

 

^? huh? citation please.

 

Reduce corporate tax rates to the world average, but then tax capital gains as ordinary income!

Why should passive income be taxed less, (way less) than that earned through working?

Icarus

 

most of buffet's income is capital gains, so his effective tax rate is 17%. what we need is a graduated cap gains rate like the income tax rate but with higher limits. people who inherit the family home should not have to pay the same rate as people like buffet.

 

Personally.....I really don't care how much "the wealthy" pay in taxes. I'm not wealthy, so I can't get all emotionally attached to that issue. There are 300+ millions of people in this country. How many of them are what you consider to be 'rich'?
In a fair world, there would be a tax code that is simple enough to fit on a post card, and everyone would pay their fair share. Of course....in a fair world, there would be world peace.
Both would be nice.
Neither is going to happen anytime soon.
Right now we have a system that is so complicated that nobody can determine with any accuracy how much anybody else is paying, and there is a large portion of the population that is paying nothing....again, how large this group is and which income brackets they belong to depends on whose numbers you're willing to believe.

It's no small wonder that our "system" sets one group against another. We could argue for weeks on end just trying to determine how much the rich are actually paying right now...or for that matter, what you consider to be "rich", or even "poor".

No thanks!
I'll just pay my taxes as they come, and let the 'geniuses' argue and fight over this until we slam up against the same brick wall that they're starting to hit over in Europe.
Sooner or later we are going to either get a handle on our nation's spending and debt, or it will get a handle on us. One way or another, eventually the problem will be solved more or less.
Personally?
My bet is that one day, we're going to swipe the old National credit card....and the answer is going be "Declined!" That's when we'll probably get serious about solving the problem.
Winston Churchill said it best. Pardon me.....I guess that's Sir Winston Churchill:
"You can always count on America to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

 

But any economist can tell you, in times like these, simply cutting the spending will not accomplish any goal, first the debt is too large, second the interest on the debt, along with spending, is also an ignored problem. The current debt is $14 Trillion, just assuming $1 Trillion a year in spending cuts, it would take 14 years to cut that down, at the same time, interest on the debt is currently around $600 Billion a year, so that will be building at the same time spending is cut.

On top of that, massive spending cuts year to year, especially during the next few years, while the country is in extremely bad shape, will add to the debt problem by fewer jobs and fewer people with money to spend.

It really boils down to this, either we say to the people in the country, no medicare, no social security, no nothing, or we cut down on the military by at least $500 Billion a year along with some adjustment to medicare and social security. Military cutbacks would the best solution, simply because that is where a lot of money goes, currently in the neighborhood of $1.3 to $1.5 Trillion.

Now, if we return to higher taxes, that all changes, because the hurt could be lessened.

 

I wish the military budget were 1.5 trillion...or even 1.anything trillion!
Nobody knows what the actual numbers are of course, but Wikipedia pegs US Military spending somewhere south of 700 Billion. TIFWIW.
If it really were double that, maybe then we wouldn't have folks who aren't old enough to buy beer at the base club riding into combat aboard helo's that are old enough to qualify for an AARP membership.
OK...so you want to cut back on military spending?
Cool.
Cut waaaaay back?
Sure.
Unlike most folks in the room, I'm willing to consider what my boss calls a "balanced approach." We can't cut our way all the way back into fiscal responsibility, and there aren't enough millionaires in the country to tax our way back into the black either. You can forget about taxing evil corporations. They don’t pay taxes. They’ll either pull up stakes and move to BFE, or they’ll pass the savings along to the consumer. They’re evil….right?

Like I said…..I’m allllll about balance.
Just so we're clear about a few things before we start hacking and slashing DOD spending...
1. Military people get paid for what they do. Military cuts equal job cuts. We don't have fancy unions like the folks in the UAW, but you're going to have to consider that reducing the active duty rolls by X number of service members means that you're going to be putting X number of folks on the street......looking for a job.
2. Military hardware gets built by people, following research and development programs that employ more people. We're going to have to find something for those folks to do as well. Military bases employ tens of thousands mostly non-federal employees. Ever heard of BRAC? Look into the "economic benefits" of closing down major US bases in places like Charleston, SC.
3. The evil military industrial complex actually manages to get quite a lot of research accomplished. Ten of my 31 years in the Navy were spent performing hydrographic survey operations. I've also spent several years as a (non federal employee) contractor doing things like operating a geomagnetic survey satellite, building air deployable oceanographic data buoys, and performing optical oceanography work for the NRL. I'm not sure that some college or greedy corporation is going to want to pour money into these fields, but I could be wrong about that. If you cut the USAF's budget to zero, you're going to have to hire somebody to operate the GPS system including the National Observatory at my bosses VP's house. One of my former VP's has already taken credit for inventing the internet, and it pretty much runs itself (for now) so we don't have to worry about that one. Cyber attacks?? Naaaaah. Never happens.
4. FINALLY....there's actual defense. True...we could defend the US against all enemies with a small fraction of what we're spending today however (COMMA!) eliminating, or even drastically reducing the United States' ability to do power projection will radically diminish our ability to respond to external threats to just about two options: (a) Have Secretary Clinton send somebody a nasty note....or (b) activate SIOP...or as they say in the coffee shops....nuke 'em.

Your Call.....

 

This is actually the European way. They give the final price in large type and show the tax separately on the receipt.
It must be the law to show both prices, because that's what I see all over.

 

Funny thing about Europe. If you become super rich, you simply move to tax haven like Monaco. Same result as if you aren't paying anything at all.

However. I see why most people think the current system is unfair with rich people paying less than middle class folks.

 

I applaud WB! But I'm not much impressed. I'd like to know what took him so long? He's what 80 years old? Probably a few years left maybe even as much as 10 to 15? Yeah it's going to be tough living the rest of his life out on a mere 6-10 billion dollars. Besides donating to charity, a write off on taxes, isn't quite the same as turning your money over to a failed government via taxes now is it? I'd also like to see him back up his words by voluntarily paying higher taxes. He's only been saying this same thing for years now. I guess like most Liberals he's all talk but consistently refuses to walk the walk. I'd still love to see his face when Obama announces he'll use Warren's Berkshire billions for another failed government program like stimulus or maybe even a third failed Quantitative Easing? ound:

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/liberal-millionaires-advocate-raising-ta

 

Taxes aren't even the issue and I am not "rich", but I would start paying 20% more taxes RIGHT NOW if they could be responsibly applied to immediate and aggressive removal of illegal aliens and the offspring of illegal aliens. Imagine the impact on our environment alone.

 

What's with the hate of "aliens"? Why do you think they pollute more?

 

The glut of discarded space ships found everywhere should make this answer obvious.

Tom

 

I understand that you are being facetious, but I am confident that once you think through the impact of ~ 50 million people on the environment including water resources, deforestation, highways, waste, etc., you will figure it out.

 

Volunteer tax system, ya that'll work!

 

NOT being facetious. For some reason, you clearly HATE a group of disadvantaged people. Do you think these people don't "pollute" when living elsewhere on the planet? Is it the color of skin you think is "pollution"?

 

Charles Lindbergh Sr. was the father and influence of infamous "Lucky Lindy" Lindbergh, who was an active Nazi sympathizer.

In 1938, while in Germany, Lindy received a German medal of honor from Hermann Goering.

Lindy also believed in eugenics (the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans), and he was a Republican.

 

About what rates does Europe have on their top brackets? In the US it's 33%, and the bracket starts at $174,000. That's income earned through work. Capitol gains is only 10% to 15%.