Thom Hartmann: Why Tax Increases Would Boost Our Wages

When I was in Denmark in 2008 doing my radio show for a week from the Danish Radio studios and interviewing many of that nation’s leading politicians, economists, energy experts, and newspaper publishers, one of my guests made a comment that dropped the scales from my eyes.1

We’d been discussing taxes on the air and the fact that Denmark has an average 52 percent income-tax rate. I asked him why people didn’t revolt at such high taxes, and he smiled and pointed out to me that the average Dane is very well paid, with a minimum wage that equals roughly $18 per hour. Moreover, what Danes get for their taxes (that we don’t) is a free college education and free health care, not to mention four weeks of paid vacation each year and notoriety as the happiest nation on earth, according to a major study done by the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.2

But it was once we were off the air that he made the comment that I found so enlightening.

“You Americans are such suckers,” he said. “You think that the rules for taxes that apply to rich people also apply to working people, but they don’t. When working peoples’ taxes go up, their pay goes up. When their taxes go down, their pay goes down. It may take a year or two or three to all even out, but it always works this way -- look at any country in Europe. And that rule on taxes is the opposite of how it works for rich people!”

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/148987

Great article!

"Bush Jr., who cut <taxes> again, including cutting taxes on unearned income -- interest and dividends that people like W, who are born with a trust fund, “earn” as they sit around the pool waiting for the dividend check to arrive in the mail -- down to a top rate of 15 percent. That’s right, trust fund babies like Bush (and hedge fund billionaires) pay a maximum 15 percent federal income tax on their dividend and capital gains income, thanks to the second Bush tax cut."

"The math is pretty simple. When the über-rich are heavily taxed, economies prosper and wages for working people steadily rise. When taxes for the rich are cut, working people suffer and economies turn into casinos."

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/148987

:thumbsup:

--imm