In today’s political realm, it’s considered logical, compassionate and morally sound to vote for a government that will use force to steal money from one group of people to give to another. If you fall into this line of thinking then instead of using your money to help a person, you will support politician A to do it for you.
Why talk about this? Well, CNBC released its first-ever Millionaire Survey, which discovered that a strong majority (66 percent) of millionaires want higher taxes on the wealthy as well as a higher minimum wage to help reduce income inequality and the impoverished in America today.
The survey supposedly highlighted that millionaires in the United States are complicated: they believe hard work, smart investing and regularly saving can lead anyone to become affluent, but then the million-dollar respondents cited cultural and family issues as being regular hurdles for someone to climb the wealth ladder.
The online poll was conducted with 514 adults, who had assets of $1 million or more between, in March. It contained a margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points.
Why Not Donate?
One of the more interesting elements to these debates is when millionaires who call for higher taxes, like Warren Buffett, never voluntarily donate their money to the United States government, the Internal Revenue Service or the Treasury Department. Instead, they want the government to legislate legalized theft instead of promoting non-coercive contributions.
Individuals similar to Buffett are hypocrites. Buffett himself even admitted in an interview that he wouldn’t pay more in taxes than what he is legally required to do so.
“I will not pay a dime more of individual taxes than I owe, and I won’t pay a dime more of corporate taxes than we owe. And that’s very simple,” Buffett told Fortune magazine. “In my own case, I offered one time to match a voluntary payment that any Senators pay, and I offered to triple any voluntary payment that [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made, but they never took me up on it.”
For so much talk of making the rich pay their fair share and how the government needs more money, how much has actually been donated? Well, in the fiscal 2014 year to date, a little more than $3.4 million has been contributed. Last year, more than $1.7 million was voluntarily given to Uncle Sam. The largest sum the government has ever received was in 2012 when it garnered $7.74 million, likely due to the citizenry’s failed confidence in President Obama.
It’s rather preposterous when millionaires call for higher taxes so the government can continue failing the poor, starting wars and helping their crony buddies. Instead of complaining, why not just write a check to the government? It’s rather simple, especially considering that they have the means to do so and plenty of disposable income. Anyone can submit a general donation to the U.S. government. Here are two links: Treasury Direct and the Bureau of Fiscal Service.
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