Warren Buffett recognized that wealth doesn’t just happen due to hard work or luck, that society – our commonwealth – provides the basis of any individual’s wealth. “Share the prosperity.” Constant bleating about unfair taxes is a fool’s game that destroys the commonwealth. TAX THE RICH! They can afford it.
http://www.charlierose.com/download/transcript/10711
WARREN BUFFETT: I think that if we’re looking for more money, we ought to look to guys like me. I mean, I am still paying a lower rate on dividends and capital gains than my cleaning lady. It’s, you know, in terms of her payroll tax, just to start with. And so, I just think that we’ve gotten so far out of whack in terms of who’s been prosperous in recent years, and most of the economy — most people have been left behind, you know. So we learn that a rising tide lifts all yachts. (LAUGHTER) …
CHARLIE ROSE: Does that mean that the American system is in a sense a bit unfair and geared to the rich?
WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I think it has become more geared to the rich as time has gone by, and I think that the rich have, you know, obviously a disproportionate impact, you know, on how Congress behaves, and… if you have a very rich country with a great number of superrich, you have to fight against a plutocracy.
WARREN BUFFETT: And you want a prosperous country so you want a whole bunch of rich people, but you also want everybody to do reasonably well in something as prosperous as we have. … but we’ve got — we’ve got almost 60 million people living in households where 20 — the top income is $21,000 or less. That’s the top of the 60 million people. So we can do better. Now, we have done better over time. I mean, we put in Social Security and we’ve done things in the country that have worked in the direction …
WARREN BUFFETT: But a prosperous country should not just be prosperous for the people like me who are wired in a particular way at birth — no credit to me ….
WARREN BUFFETT: And you don’t want to mess up the market system that works to bring out of people what their best talents are, but the market system is not perfect in any kind of distribution of wealth. And taxation is a way where you get to the excesses of what the market system produces and where you take care of the people that get the short straws. In a country as prosperous as we are, nobody should get a really short straw.
CHARLIE ROSE: You know, some people are going to hear you say that and they’ll say, "Warren is talking about sharing the wealth. There he goes .."
WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I’m talking about sharing the prosperity. I’m prosperous because of the society around me.
WARREN BUFFETT: So they benefit from society. We all do. And some like me benefit enormously from society, you know. I can’t do it by myself. Stick me on a desert island, you know, you do not want to be on the same island.
CHARLIE ROSE: So, all these people who think that somehow there’s some new idea about — they use the word "socialism," but something else in terms of …
WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah, Barack Obama …
CHARLIE ROSE: You don’t buy that.
WARREN BUFFETT: Barack Obama wants a much more prosperous economy, embodying the principles that have made it prosperous, but I think he does want to make sure that the bottom 20 or 30 percent does better than it has done in the last 20 years while the top has prospered so much.
http://www.charlierose.com/download/transcript/10711
BBC NEWS | Europe | Rich Germans demand higher taxes [hattip to Jas.]
A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.
The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany’s economic recovery.
BBC NEWS | Europe | Rich Germans demand higher taxes
The Associated Press: AP POLL: How to pay for health overhaul? Tax rich
WASHINGTON — Americans don’t want to shoulder the cost of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul themselves. They think the rich should pay for it.
The Associated Press: AP POLL: How to pay for health overhaul? Tax rich