Why is raising taxes a good thing?

The only people supporting raising taxes on the rich are those with wealth envy. Most people aren't supporting it.

Taxation can run at a sort of equilibrium. There are things government can and should be doing. It requires money. So there's a level of taxation the citizenry will entertain in exchange for those services. What we have here in the USofA is WAY out of control. Raising taxes beyond this level of equilibrium pulls excess money out of the market in turn increasing the cost of goods and services, reducing cash-flow, reducing tax sources which escalates the desire to increase taxes more, and increases unemployment.

The rich already pay the most income taxes. Taxpayers in the bottom 20% in income pay -2% of the total tax burden. They actually make money by filing their tax return. Conversely the top 1% in income pay 40% of the total tax burden. That same 1% represents about 20% of the total income generated. The lowest 45% pay no taxes. The bottom 50% group pays under 3%. Often these are the very people crying "the rich don't pay their fair share." But then if you ask them if they wish they were rich they say yes. Between welfare and government employment 45% of Americans are now living off the other 55%. The rich represent the most cash-flow and the most jobs. Taxing them harder is obviously a bad idea.

This is only income taxes. There's all the other taxes, vehicles, sin, real estate (taxes on buying a home), property (taxes on living in the home a.k.a. rent to your county), retail sales, license fees, fuel, and so on. State and local taxes work out to approximately $4200 per person each year. Many people believe we should raise taxes upon business. The problem is businesses don't pay taxes. Taxes are a cost of doing business just like payroll, materials, utilities, etc. All of those costs are passed on to the consumer.

Moving to a consumption tax such as the proposed Fair Tax is the most obvious and best solution to address the issue, aside from dramatic spending cuts.

Speaking of the great depression, what about the depression that almost came before it?

http://www.ntui.org/itef/warren-harding-and-the-gr...

Raising taxes is not a good thing but taxation is necessary. what i dont understand is how there are so many loopholes that it is possible to get away with paying no taxes. i know some people that have a very successful business, four or five classic cars, big luxurious house, motorcycles, campers, brand new camaro, boats and they somehow worked the numbers to show huge debt to profit ratio and they are filing bankruptcy but are still keeping everything but one of their houses so i think this should be stopped somehow

We're running a pretty large deficit and there are two ways to control it: raise taxes and/or cut spending. It's difficult to cut spending because the money often provides an essential service. Meanwhile, taxes have been cut over and over again, to the point where tax rates are at record lows.

It's important to cut spending in certain wasteful areas to help control the deficit, but the highest tax brackets could be allowed to return to previous levels without impacting anyone's lifestyle.

Because the rich can afford big time tax lawyers and you'd be surprised to see how much less they pay than someone in the middle class.

So the theory is make them pay more so their rich tax lawyers can take less.

14 trillion national debt