According to the headline in the Aug. 16 issue of my local paper, ‘Buffett wants to pay more tax.’ I didn’t see that coming.
But Warren Buffett’s timing is perfect. (He strikes me as a leftovers-kinda-guy, and knows when enough is enough. I bet he doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty, stuffing his own sausages, making his own gourmet dog once in awhile. Let me know if I’m wrong.)
[“Thumbs up! Warren and Gord like this sausage tutorial.”: photo link]
At the moment US politicians are struggling to reduce the nation’s deficit and get runaway debt under control. “Added revenue” or taxes might be one way to go as far as Buffett, one of the world’s three richest men, is concerned.
His thinking flies in the face of the common default position for a growing number of North Americans who chant, scream or push the following views:
Freeze taxes!
Cut taxes!
Cut government staff and programs!
Get government out of our faces!
Buffett’s position, that the wealthy “have it better than we’ve ever had it” and that they have an obligation to pay substantially more tax, flies in the face of a philosophy espoused by many government leaders and media pundits (not me, however, ‘cause I don’t even know what a pundit is).
Peter Worthington, media pundit of some renown, shares the philosophy in a recent article re the US deficit and debt:
“The only thing that can, or will, curb the growing national debt is productivity.”
(In other words, to bring unsustainable debt under control we must follow the business as usual path of unsustainable production and industrial growth. Now, that’s radical! Sorry, I digress.)
“The answer is not raising taxes, especially if you want the economy to flourish. Yet for many politicians, raising taxes is the limit of their imaginations - especially on those they regard as “the rich.” What is often overlooked is that it is usually rich people who have the wherewithal to create jobs, and therefore become richer. In the process, American workers have also become richer.”(Aug. 8, London Free Press)
With 9.2% unemployment in the US, maybe the above philosophy needs a closer look. Maybe it’s time the unsustainable production game is dialed back a bit and level of taxation for the millions who can afford to pay more is dialed up a bit.
Though Republicans in the US and certain folks in Canada will continue to resist higher taxes for the wealthy, maybe some of Buffett’s words will carry some weight.
“While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and whilst most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extra-ordinary tax breaks."
A spokesperson for one notably wealthy person (contacted by Reuters) responded to Buffett’s challenge with the following:
“George Soros says he agrees and congratulates Warren Buffett. The rich are hurting their own long-term interests by their opposition to paying more taxes.”
Whatever Buffett is up to, or whatever his motivation, I think the subject of long-term interests must be put on the table for a moment.
More to follow.
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Definition; pundit - learned expert or teacher. (Concise Oxford Dictionary)
Yeah, that’s not me.
Please click here to read The Way We Live PT 1.
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