Poll: Americans Want Free Stuff, Paid for by Others

Says Politico: “The American public overwhelmingly favors raising taxes on the rich as a way to pay down the deficit, while opposing a hike in the Medicare eligibility age or eliminating tax deductions, according to a poll released Wednesday.”

For Medicare and Social Security to remain solvent, the U.S. government would have to invest over $220 trillion right now, and get a roughly five percent rate of return. Medicare alone accounts for easily 80% of that. And the American public won’t tolerate even a two-year extension of the retirement age.

Meanwhile, they think successful people owe them money. Someone who earns, say, $300K per year does so not because of political connections or cronyism. Those people earn in the millions. The $300K guy is the person who worked his tail off over many years of serving the public in some valuable way. And complete strangers think they have the right to a portion of his life. Of five days of this guy’s labor, these people feel entitled to at least two of them. A total stranger to them. He owes them at least 40% of his life.

(Incidentally, add up the sales taxes people pay every day, plus the extra-high taxes for parking and hotels, plus state income taxes, plus property taxes, plus gas taxes, plus all the taxes you see listed on your cable bill, and on and on, and your tax payment winds up a lot higher than whatever federal income tax rate happens to hit you.)

Originally posted on TomWoods.com