I'd like to raise an issue which I'm not sure has been discussed since I have not looked through the whole thread. The tax on dividends and capital gains is a paltry 15%. And I think that is where a lot of wealthy folks are getting off easier than they should -- the low tax rates on investment income disproportionately favors them.
It seems fundamentally wrong to me that making money for doing work is taxed at a higher rate than doing nothing and accumulating money.
Investments is not "doing nothing", for people who actually work in the field.
And what about people who don't work in the field? They still accumulate money.
Investing money isn't doing nothing. It's alright that people thought this back in pre-enlightenment days but it hurts my head that people still think that.
They're providing capital to productive enterprises at the risk of losing that capital. Thus, they get a return on it which is dependent on the level of risk.
That it is taxed so low is largely because capital is more mobile than labour.
