Stop Coddling The Super-Rich

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich

Tax rates during the period between the end of the Second World War till the early 1980’s were so high compared to those of today. For example in the United States, the highest income of the richest paid income tax at a rate of 91% until 1964. Today, tax rate dropped to 35-40 % hire in all countries. Consequently, the rich are getting richer and the poor are more numerous because governments have less to offer.

In this text, the author is explaining how taxes are paid in the USA and points out the difference between taxes paid by rich people on one side and by low and middle class on the other side. It is obviously that in the United States of America, the “mega-rich” people have a sort of agreement with the government to keep the tax rates extremely low.

The first thought that comes into our mind when we see the unfair gap of income distribution, is that a major part of these “mega-rich” people use the save on these tax cuts to spend it on fancy cars, private yacht and any other luxury products.

This is just a stereotype. Not all of them are spending the save on the tax cuts in the same way. Mr. Buffet, from the text, illustrates perfectly this point. He has stepped forth and showed how angry he is at this unfairly division on tax rates between the different social classes.

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men, who also happens to be the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway stands up and comes forth claiming that we must “share sacrifice”. The author clearly states that he is against the taxes policies regarding the different social classes in the USA, and he expressed his compassion for the low and middle-income classes.

In the article, Mr. Buffet gives some statistics about his federal tax bill last year that was $6,938,744. When we first see the number we are expecting huge tax payments but as we continue reading the article, we understand that it is not the case and that the amount paid is really small. “That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than what was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office”, he claimed.

Thus, Mr. Buffet did not only showed his compassion for the low and middle class but he also blamed the government that did not interfere to reduce this tax injustice that other citizens are suffering from. . He states that like many of his “friends”, he donates a huge amount of money for associations. He suggests that the government increases the tax rates also calls for an improvement of the situation when it comes to low and middle classes.

...