Taxes

“Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin wrote to Jean-Baptiste Leroy on November 13, 1789. We have been trying to figure out how to avoid both since then.

Biden is proposing to raise income tax and double the taxes on capital gains for people who make more than $1m a year. Estate exemption taxes would drop by 50%. Corporations will have to pay taxes, and those earning over $100m a year would have an additional tax. There will be larger child tax credits and help on student debt. At the end of the day, most of these taxes are geared towards taking more from the wealthy. Essentially we are fine with this.

We do not mind paying our fair share of taxes. If we are going to be taxed at European rates, then we must have European services.  In Europe, healthcare is free, and so is a college education. If everyone had access to free healthcare in the US, including the ability to be educated without incurring any debt, that would be amazing. The long tail of that would be a more equitable society. It would be good for all of us.

We need to change where all of our tax dollars are going to have what Europe has. Should we be spending almost $100 billion on our military every year? Should 30% of the budget be set aside for discretionary spending by our Senators? A tremendous amount also goes to welfare spending. Is that managed correctly? Questionable.

I say bring on the taxes but rethink the system.