Edwird
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Joined: 5/2/2016
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quote:
ORIGINAL: SunDominant It has been urged and echoed, that the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,’" amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction.
~ Federalist Papers, No. 41
Furthermore, the general welfare of the republic does not equate to the particular circumstances of select individuals.
But that's in fact how it has worked practice, especially in the last 30-35 years.
Whoever thinks that capital gains and interest income tax reductions benefiting highest wealth individuals far more than anyone else, and a mountain of tax loopholes, tax credits, tax break incentives, offshoring of profits, and myriad other tax avoidance stratagems isn't significantly a greater gift and support to -select individuals- written into law for that specific purpose than recipients of TANF and food cards ... is delusional.
The legal system allows CEOs of investment and depository banks and hedge fund managers and other financial entities to retain their bonuses and financial derivatives gains of $20 million to $3+ billion per individual (in one year), all at specifically targeted lower tax rates than a factory worker or insurance adjuster, as reward for wrecking the economy and destroying a good chunk of honestly earned if numerically unimpressive wealth of the middle class. The shareholders and investors have paid for the nickel and dime run of piddling fines and criminal and civil settlements (all tax deductible), but not enough to notice in the way of earnings statements or dividends, for the most part.
And then there's the productivity thing.
Increased productivity increases the value of a worker, and that's not 'theory,' microeconomics having little theory to it. It shows in the numbers, it's measurable. ("Consumer utility" being one of microeconomics' tepid ventures into theory, but even then, numbers to go with it.)
But workers have experienced only minuscule participation in that reward, by way of financial and economic and "activist investor" inducements, and yes, governmental incentives to corporations and wealthiest individuals -militating against that outcome-. For one thing, the federal minimum wage still being at $7.25/hr. is absurd beyond belief, even in the lowest COL/PPP states. In any case, real (inflation-adjusted) wages have barely held above flatline while increased productivity and corporate profits obtained thereby have done far better, top 1% individual earners having done quite well, and year-on-year increase in income of the top .1% has skyrocketed.
We have gross/total revenue and then we have net earnings after all costs and taxes, and there's a whole lot that goes on in between. Aside from whatever otherwise "organic" financial/economic situation, there are mountains of tax and regulatory laws in place to target 'select individuals' for garnering the greatest portion of wealth created by everyone else.
If you don't like the notion of "redistribution of wealth," then let's recognize that maybe we should quit voting for assholes who do everything possible to further the cause of -misdistribution/misdirection of wealth- in the first place.
Reversing the latter situation would prevent quite a large portion of the former, and diversion of wealth from the workers, the producers of wealth, being less ardently incentivized as by current legislation would be a start.
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RE: To Provide For The General Welfare - 
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