Where Are the Millionaires Who Are Paying the Taxes?

We hear a lot, these days, about the desirability of taxing the wealthy and leaving the lower income brackets out of the tax increase. But we need to also think about the little problem we have of paying for the activities of the government.

In 2007, 390,000 tax filers reported adjusted gross income of $1 million or more and paid $309 billion in taxes. In 2009, there were only 237,000 such filers who paid $178 billion in taxes; that was a decline of 39% in the number of millionaires. Almost four of 10 millionaires vanished in two years, and the total taxes they paid in 2009 took a drop of 42%.

The millionaires who are left still pay a mountain of tax. Those who make $1 million accounted for about 0.2% of all tax returns but paid 20.4% of income taxes in 2009. Those with adjusted gross income above $200,000 a year were just under 3% of tax filers but paid 50.1% of the $866 billion in total personal income taxes. This means the top 3% paid more than the bottom 97%. Yet the 3% are the people that President Obama claims do not pay their fair share. Before the recession, the $200,000 income group paid 54.5% of the income tax.

Government has discovered that the easiest way to produce income equality is to destroy trillions of dollars of wealth owned by a small proportion of the population. However, those destroyed dollars are taken out of the investment pool of the country leaving everyone out of luck. Those dollars would otherwise be useful to increase jobs. Everyone loses, but the rich lose relatively more than the poor and the middle class. By that measure, if few others, Obamanomics has been a raging success.

This blog post was excerpted from the Wall Street Journal 17 August 2011, page A14.

Are American Cities Headed For London?

We have all been appalled at the happenings in London and other British cities lately—riots by young hoodlums with no respect for working people or personal property. They have shown no regard for law and order; and they have not demonstrated any kind of work ethic that would have demonstrated their desire to earn a living. They have been largely young, unemployed people who live off government and social service handouts and bask in a very lenient justice system that lets them off easy when apprehended for miscreant behavior.

British Prime Minister, David Cameron has said, “There is something terribly wrong with our young people.” The London Daily Mail comments, “The depressing truth is that at the bottom of our society is a layer of young people with no skills, education, values, or aspirations….Nobody has ever dared suggest to them that they need feel any allegiance to anything, least of all Britain or their community….Not only do they know nothing of Britain’s past, they care nothing for its future.”

Contributing causes for all this disorder are several in British society: First, is a failing educational system that leaves out basic training in educational subjects. The average Pole who immigrates to England speaks better English than these young rioters after being in the country only six months. Secondly, England is importing foreigners to fill service industries at an overwhelming rate. It is said that one can hardly find any restaurants or hotels with young Brits doing the service work—only foreigners work in such jobs. Social charges on labor and the minimum wage are so high that no employer can extract from the young unemployed Briton anything like the value of what it costs to employ him.

Does any of this sound familiar to American ears? Do any of these social ills pervade our inner cities?

Nancy and I have lately been attempting to teach reading skills and Bible truths to a group of inner city minority group youngsters in Cleveland, OH. Even though the curriculum has been very well thought out and the staff has been skilled at teaching, the results are abominable. These youngsters are so disruptive, ignorant, disrespectful, and parentally deprived, that it has been all but impossible to impart useful information into their minds. They remind us of little time bombs just waiting for some British-type riot to break out so they can participate.

America is needful of a renewal of her biblical work ethic. We need the moral fiber that can only be imparted by sound religious values. We need to return to our ethical, Christian, roots. Only when our people resolve within ourselves to address the social problems of our country in a meaningful way can we ever hope to avoid a quick trip to London!