Part of President Biden's Build Back Better bills were to include a wealth tax on Billionaires. They were also to include increased taxes on corporations and end some loopholes. But they don't. Democrats are hopeful to pass at least some of theses new and increased taxes in further legislation (click here).
Why do the wealthy resist paying more in taxes when they have benefited the most from the advantages that this nation offers? Why are they looking to minimize their tax bills when they are going to do very well anyway? It might be for the same reason why people invest in companies in the first place. After all, when one employs the services of a financial management company, they are employing people who are looking to maximize their profits through investments regardless of who pays for those profits. Accountants are there, in part, to lower the tax bills of those with wealth regardless of how their lowered tax bills affects our nation's deficit.
And there we have the basic ethic behind wealth management in America. Maximize wealth which includes minimize tax bills even though those taxes provide services that are used by all Americans and though the wealthy have certainly benefited from the services more than others.
While others might need to maximize wealth and minimize tax bills to survive, the wealthiest of us do not. And so how should we view their efforts to maximize their wealth and minimize their tax bills. Perhaps, Martin Luther King Jr. has the best way of describing those actions by the wealthiest in his speech against the Vietnam War when he talks about our need for a revolution in values (click here for the source):
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just."
One only needs to replace the words 'no concern' with 'not enough concern.' Why? It is because some of the wealthy do contribute by giving back to scociety. But some of that betterment is tax deductible and that betterment, by itself, is limited compared to what it could be. We do need to fund government, especially a government in a working democracy, so it can do for its people what the people request and what no one else can do.
Also, a main reason why those who are wealthy are where they are is because of the work of the government in supplying infrastructure, laws, law enforcement, as well as what government does for society, especially in terms of education and what they do for the poor. In the last case, what government does for the poor contributes to a more humane society. And the more humane society is, the better life is for everyone.
Here we could say that patriotic sacrifices are not just limited to those sacrifices made by our troops. Paying one's fair share in taxes can be considered a patriotic sacrifice especially when those taxes are used to better the lives people from multiple economic classes and races. And though it has flaws, Biden's infrastructure plans would help many people from many groups. Maximizing profits in ways that include minimizing taxes benefits oneself or one's own group only.
That is not to say that Biden's Build Back Better proposals do not need debate and then correction. But not to fund what sustains society and the operating of our private and public sectors is a slow suicide for the nation. And so the question is whether we, especially the wealthy who can easily afford to pay more in taxes, are willing to invest enough in our nation and its people by the taxes we pay.
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