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Millionaires: Raise Our Taxes To Address Poverty, Fix Roads (go.com)
jones_supa writes from an article on ABCNews: More than 40 millionaires, including members of the Rockefeller and Disney families, are asking to have their taxes raised to help address poverty and rebuild failing infrastructure. The millionaires wrote a letter to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top New York lawmakers proposing new, higher tax rates for the top 1% of earners in the state. The letter says that additional revenue would help addressing child poverty, homelessness and aging bridges, tunnels, water pipes and roads. "As New Yorkers who have contributed to and benefited from the economic vibrancy of our state, we have both the ability and the responsibility to pay our fair share," the letter states. "We can well afford to pay our current taxes, and we can afford to pay even more." The tax plan, known as the one-percent tax plan, was worked out in conjunction with the Fiscal Policy Institute, a left-leaning economic think tank.
There are two types of rich people: The economic value creators (Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, etc) and the lucky ones (Wall Street, Koch Bros).
The former don't care about higher taxes precisely *because* they generate economic value. If you take their money, it will go to teachers, police, etc, and will eventually filter through the economy to someone who wants to buy more Shaw carpet or Acme brick. What the tax man taketh from Warren Buffet, a slightly wealthier poor and middle class give back.
Meanwhile, if you're "lucky", if you got your fortune because you were in the right place at the right time, knew the right hands to shake and palms to grease, taxing them takes away the money forever. It isn't coming back.
So when you see the rich say we need higher taxes, it's usually people who actually generate value, and the ones who complain about higher taxes are usually the leeches on society.