Today, we hear all the time, the rich should pay their fair share. The democrats in the House and Senate want to tax the rich for everything under the sun. Get them for housing, get them for student loans, get them for health insurance, get them for the infrastructure. In the end, if there is a social program the democrats want, it is attached with the “rich need to pay their fair share”.
The Republicans are not all that much better. While they do not necessarily want to tax the rich any more than what is being done now. They do want to tax everyone for every program that comes along. The mantra “make them pay their fair share” is picking up steam as more and more socialists are getting into office.
Walter L. Williams is a guest columnist for the Desert Sun. He wrote an article last year titled “No, the rich don’t pay their fair share in taxes. Here’s how to fix that.“ You can see his article here: The rich don’t pay their fair share in taxes (desertsun.com) In the article there is a paragraph that really made me stop and think. It caught my attention because it sounded so profoundly wrong to me.
“When the federal income tax was enacted a century ago, only the richest 10% paid any tax at all. Yet today, the authors complain because “the richest 1% pay over 30%.” Actually, 30% is much too low. There is no reason anyone in the bottom half should be paying any taxes at all. Taxes should be borne by the wealthy, who have benefitted most, not the poor and middle class.”
The article says a lot of other things, but this paragraph really touched me. I don’t know Walter personally. However, I do know others that would echo his sentiments of this paragraph.
It amazes me that both parties want to tax the citizenry to death. Perhaps the wrong things are being done to begin with. Instead of taxing the citizens for all these programs that divide us as a nation, the government should just simply get rid of the programs. No programs, no need for money, no taxes – and the citizens can live in peace.
I cannot make up your mind for you on which side of the argument you would follow. To me, when half the people are paying and the other half are not, that seems to be an income redistribution to me.
Walter’s article made me think of Adrian Rogers quote.
Adrian Rogers was an American Pastor, author and president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, he decided to enter the ministries at the age of 19. He died of pneumonia in November of 2005. I am not the religious type. Though raised as a Catholic I do not follow the church teachings any longer.
None-the-less, I did found info on Adrian to be very informative. He pushed the conservative agenda from the pulpit and believed that Christians had a duty to be involved in government. He had a series titled “God’s Way to Health, Wealth and Wisdom”. In that series he talked about how young people don’t understand the importance or value of “honest” labor. The series produced one of the most famous quotes seen widely across the internet.
I ran across his quote again the other day and I started to look into Adrian so I could present it to you here with a little background.
“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.
You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
Well Walter, there is something worth thinking about the next time you dream that 50% of the citizenry should not pay taxes at all.