01-07-2011, 10:27 PM
Rick-o wrote:
This country is falling apart for most folks, save for the filthy rich, you know, the ones who are always crying about losing their tax breaks, shelters, and lord knows what other sweetheart deals they always seem to garner with their hotshot lobbyists.
I'm in agreement with this statement. I don't think everyone who earns a high salary is noble and many of them would quit their jobs and lounge on the beach if their lifestyle didn't require them to work. And I also agree that our current tax system is hardly progressive and that the wealthy should pay more. The current capital gains tax rate is a joke compared to what the a middle class American pays in combined fed, state, payroll, sales and property taxes.
Where we disagree is that I don't believe money is the end product for all successful entrepreneurs and that many would work even if they didn't get paid. One problem this country faces is that many of the most innovative people who are "wealthy enough" stop working and thus stop solving problems. I have tremendous respect for people who continue to work after they are financially independent. Most of these people, as john dough stated, are very frugal and want to give back to society.
Steve Jobs has made way more money for other people than he's made for himself. Apple paid over $4.5B in taxes on just corporate profits in 2010. Add in the amount of taxes paid by the employees and the capital gains paid by investors and "Apple venture" has likely contributed over a trillion to governments in just the 16 years since Steve came back. It has also provided hundreds of thousands of jobs for families to educate their children and allowed us to do our jobs better (if Steve Jobs didn't have to come back to Apple in 1994, Apple might have folded and we'd all be using Windows 3.1). The $5B Steve Jobs has made from Apple is far less than 1% of what Apple has contributed in taxes to our governments not to mention what he has given to the employees, investors and society.
I don't feel that the problems of this country are caused by the success of entrepreneurs. On the contrary, I think the best quality of this country is that an entrepreneur can be compensated for solving very tough problems by providing a valued service or product. It's even better If he provides taxpaying employees, union or non-union, a share or most of that wealth.