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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGallup Americans want the government to "redistribute wealth by heavy taxes on the rich"
Americans are eager to see the government "spread the wealth around" through heavy taxes on rich people. This, according to Gallup, is a relatively new phenomenon, with a clear preference for soaking the rich really only emerging in the past four or five years:
On a different polling measure, Gallup finds that at least since the mid-1980s a large majority of Americans have expressed a preference for a flatter distribution of income. But that's something that could, at least hypothetically, be achieved in a whole variety of ways. Taxing the rich in order to redistribute income to the working class is a much more specific idea and, naturally, a more contentious one.
Not surprisingly, Republicans and rich people are not particularly excited about this idea, while Democrats and the poor love it.
But in some ways the most interesting demographic sub-sample is the age one. Respondents ages 18 to 34 are supportive of redistributive taxation by a 59-38 margin, while those over 55 are much more skeptical 47 percent say tax the rich, and 50 percent disagree. In other words, the age stratification of American politics isn't just about gay marriage or marijuana; it cuts to the core economic policy divides in Washington and state capitals around the country.
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ipn3W5CAumGqQq6_bdagaNWyOQo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3668740/4fzmtdiewkqh5043cde7tq.0.png
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/4/8548009/redistribution-poll
LuvNewcastle
(16,846 posts)turn this country around. It's looking good right now. I hope they get active and stay active. We need resistance to the way we're headed now.
RKP5637
(67,108 posts)will put most people in this country into a dystopia in the not too far future if the economic imbalance is not corrected.
JHB
(37,160 posts)It was eliminated under Reagan, and has never been restored.
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)To me, it is pointless to raise taxes and give money away.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Republicans and rich people.
merrily
(45,251 posts)cyberswede
(26,117 posts)rock
(13,218 posts)If you don't mind?
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)I don't think high tax rates for the rich are unfair.
rock
(13,218 posts)sorefeet
(1,241 posts)of poor people who just seem to worship the rich. Kiss ass, they think the rich will trickle down. The poor also need to learn the rich are not their friends. If the rich cared one iota, they would not be rich and the poor would not be poor. There would be humane balance.
lostnfound
(16,179 posts)Maybe I'm crazy (I do tend to support the dreamy idealists like Kucinich, Howard Dean, and oh yeah, Obama), but there is a LOT of anger among the middle class about the game being so heavily rigged in favor of the rich that they can no longer make a living.
Response to Ichingcarpenter (Original post)
packman This message was self-deleted by its author.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)"Rich" always seems to mean "noticeably more than I make", regardless of the number implied in the last two words.
To a minimum wage worker a $60k accountant is rich; to the latter a $110k engineer is rich, to them a $250k vet, ad infinitum.
Then we have location to consider. That engineer lives a life of sybaritic excess in rural Alabama, while they had better choose between a poky 1br apt or a hour-long commute moving to Silicon Valley. Do they stay rich in both places?
There are many mathematical ways to define rich, but few that will pass the test of the inevitable "Harry and Louise" style ad campaign from opponents.
I should pay a higher real tax rate than people making a lot less than me, and the same in reverse. It's where to set the marginal brackets that is the problem. Eventually too we have to discuss maximums. The 50s-70s brain drain in Britain was not imaginary, and is seeing a smaller echo today.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Without the loopholes of the day.
Marginal Tax Rate on Regular Income over $400,000: 92% - 91%
Maximum Tax Rate on Long-Term Capital Gains: 25%
JFK
Marginal Tax Rate on Regular Income over $400,000: 91%
Maximum Tax Rate on Long-Term Capital Gains: 25%
LBJ
Marginal Tax Rate on Regular Income: Over $400,000: 91% - Over $200,000: 75.25%
Maximum Tax Rate on Long-Term Capital Gains: 25% - 26.9%
Nixon (believe this or don't, it's true)
Marginal Tax Rate on Regular Income over $200,000: 77% - 70%
Maximum Tax Rate on Long-Term Capital Gains: 27.5% - 36.5%
Make those rotten, spoiled fuckers scream like little girls on a roller coaster.
Aristus
(66,380 posts)It's returning it to the people who earned it. All the idle-rich billionaire assholes do for work is sit at the top of the economic heap collecting the money other people work for.
Screw the rich. It's time to return to progressive taxation...
SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)It's not "redistribution", it's giving a fair share to the people who actually do all the fucking work. I'm sorry, if you can't pay your employees a living wage then your shareholders can eat shit. Along with your CEO's and upper management.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)because of their framing of the conversation of the poll questions and their titles........... yes I agree with you, on that meme
but I'll take this one as a plus for the 99
SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)that end up being used as the standard. Death Panels. Death Tax. Right To Work. Entitlements. All mean the opposite of what they say yet Gallup, along with all the major news outlets, go right ahead and add them to the lexicon.